Copper-related stocks are among the top performers in the Hong Kong market today.

The gains follow a weaker-than-expected U.S. non-farm payrolls report, which has significantly cooled market expectations for further interest rate hikes.

Among the leading advancers, CHINFMINING (01258) surged 12.13% to HK$12.76. ZIJIN MINING (02899) rose 9.72% to HK$30.92. MMG (01208) gained 7.25% to HK$7.40, while JIANGXI COPPER (00358) increased by 4.77% to HK$32.04.

Analyst Views on Copper Fundamentals

From a medium to long-term perspective, analysts note that insufficient global capital expenditure in copper mines in recent years, coupled with declining ore grades at aging operations, has constrained supply elasticity. Concurrently, emerging demand from power grid construction, new energy and related infrastructure, and AI data centers remains in an expansion cycle. This fundamental mismatch between supply and demand is expected to continue lifting the long-term price floor for copper.

Valuation Opportunity for Copper Equities

One securities firm points out that copper stocks are currently characterized by low price-to-earnings ratios, resilient earnings per share, and unrefuted commodity fundamentals. The market, however, continues to value these stocks based on the macro-driven valuation compression framework of the past decade. The current cycle for the metals sector is being driven by earnings per share, and the re-rating of copper stocks' profitability and resource value is not yet complete.

The firm judges that August and September could present a key window for a recovery in the mispriced copper equities, with a high probability of strong positive catalysts from price rallies emerging around the fourth quarter.