Base metals surrendered earlier gains and headed into negative territory on Tuesday evening, pulled lower by a modest bounce in the dollar and down despite supportive trade data from China, the world's top copper consumer.

Nickel and Zinc lost significantly on LME, shedding 3.47 and 1.89 percent respectively. Lead witnessed a sharp decline of 1.71 percent on MCX, the highest in this complex.

IN FOCUS:

Mining giant Xstrata said on Tuesday it sees production at its Antapaccay copper project in Peru starting by the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013, while Las Bambas should be operational by the close of 2014.

Copper output at First Quantum Minerals' Kansanshi Mining Plc in Zambia fell to 45,073 tonnes in the six months to June 2009 from 52,952 tonnes in the same period last year, the company said on Tuesday.

China ended 5 months of record copper inflows in July, but imports of scrap surged by two-thirds and domestic production of refined copper continued to climb, showing that demand from the world's top consumer of the metal stayed hot in the summer.

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK:

We have seen better-than-expected economic data in the last two weeks which may lead to a robust growth forecast by Fed today. We expect this development may support the base metals prices. The trend for the day could be up.