Benchmark copper for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division closed at $3.3495/lb.

On the LME, copper for three month delivery closed at $7,455/mt, down $112.50.

"The general concern in the market is of monetary tightening and the impact that could have on the speed of the global economic recovery, and therefore on the potential for metals consumption recovery," said Gayle Berry, an analyst at Barclays Capital.

"Although there does appear to be an improvement in physical demand, it also appears that the overall availability of material still remains tight, with metal tied up in warehousing deals continuing to cloud the wider demand picture," Standard Bank said of aluminium in a note.

Zinc was at $2,476/mt, while aluminium was at $2,281/mt. Nickel was at $17,700/mt. Lead was at $2,432/mt. In late electronic trade tin fell as low as $17,640/mt.