London copper futures pared gains after hitting a fresh 20-month high on Monday, but sentiment remained positive on strong Chinese import data and a weaker dollar.

The softness in the greenback versus a basket of currencies, strength in U.S. copper and a surprise surge in Chinese copper imports helped send copper to its strongest since August 2008 and could see prices rallying even higher as funds jump into the market.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 rose $55 to $7,975 a tonne by 0714 GMT and earlier touched a fresh 20-month high of $8,043.75 in brisk electronic trading.

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