Tin hits 4-month low, copper retreats from fresh high

LONDON, June 26 (Reuters): Tin prices slipped to their lowest in more than four months on Thursday despite forecasts of deficits, while copper pulled back after touching a new peak.

At the start of the year, most analysts tipped tin for price gains as supply was expected to fall short of demand.

"Indonesia is not even exporting all that it is producing, so that should make the deficit even bigger," metals strategist Stephen Briggs at BNP Paribas in London said.

"Yet that clearly is not showing up in price performance or the trend in LME stocks. That is a bit of a mystery to me."

Meanwhile, LME copper climbed to a session high of $6,954 a tonne, the strongest since May 28, as investors focused on a shortfall in metal supply. Copper later gave up the gains and traded down 0.1 per cent at $6,911 in official rings.

A break of $6,970 would take it to its highest since early March. Copper has clawed back nearly 10 per cent from more than three-year lows reached in March.