* Copper seen rangebound, lacking direction ahead of U.S jobs * Shanghai copper stocks up 1 pct at 5-1/2-year high SHANGHAI, Nov 6 - Copper prices rose about 1 percent in Shanghai and London on Friday, supported by positive U.S. data and modest gains in Shanghai's equity market, ahead of the week's main event -- U.S. non-farm payrolls. After the market closed, weekly data from the Shanghai Futures Exchange showed copper stocks rose by 1 percent to a new 5-½ year high but the rise was less than half the $3,000-$4,000 tonnes expected by the market. Shanghai's benchmark third-month copper futures contract rose 0.9 percent to end at 51,140 yuan, down 0.1 percent on the week. "At this point there isn't much interest in trading copper, as seen in dwindling trading volumes. Global consumption isn't great, stockpiles are high, but outlook for next year is optimistic -- the market is in short-term balance for now," said a Shanghai-based trader. "There will be interest if prices jump or tumble, otherwise we'll just have to go through a long enough consolidation period before the trade interest returns." Copper stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1 percent from a week earlier to 104,275 tonnes, the highest since late April, 2004. "The physical business in China is still pretty slow. Spot is at a slight discount to futures -- not enough to attract a lot of metal but maybe enough to deter buyers taking from the exchange," a merchant in Singapore said. For graphics detailing global metals stocks, click: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/GLB_ALISTK061109.gif http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/GLB_CPRSTK061109.gif http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/GLB_ZNCSTK061109 The three-month copper futures contract on the London Metal Exchange gained $70 to $6,600 a tonne by 0810 GMT, on course for a second straight week of gains with a rise of 2 percent. Better-than-expected U.S. jobless claims and non-farm productivity data released on Thursday helped support sentiment in London copper prices, which were also feeling the weight of growing inventories of the industrial metal. U.S. business productivity grew at its fastest pace in six years in the third quarter and new jobless claims fell to a 10-month low last week, suggesting the labour market might bottom out. The U.S. economic data due on Friday includes October's non-farm payrolls and wholesale inventories figures, and will shed light on the health of the world's largest economy. Shanghai zinc rose 40 yuan to 16,885 yuan a tonne, and LME zinc gained $6 to $2,225 a tonne. "Spot traders would rather do transactions in the futures market due to the deep discount of spot prices to futures, and downstream consumption isn't particularly active," said Zeng Qianling, a zinc analyst at Jinrui Futures. Base metals prices at 0810 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2008 Pct chg 09 LME Cu 6600.00 70.00 +1.07 3060.00 115.69 SHFE Cu* 51140.00 430.00 +0.85 23840.00 114.51 LME Alum 1930.00 5.00 +0.26 1535.00 25.73 SHFE Alum* 15205.00 15.00 +0.10 11540.00 31.76 COMEX Cu** 295.05 0.00 +0.00 139.50 111.51 LME Zinc 2225.00 6.00 +0.27 1208.00 84.19 SHFE Zinc 16885.00 40.00 +0.24 10120.00 66.85 LME Nickel 18125.00 365.00 +2.06 11700.00 54.91 LME Lead 2345.00 5.00 +0.21 999.00 134.73 LME Tin 14925.00 -25.00 -0.17 10700.00 39.49 LME/Shanghai arb^ 1578 Dollar/yuan 6.8270 \ 6.8280 ** 1st contract month for COMEX copper * 3rd contact month for SHFE aluminium, copper and zinc ^ LME 3-m copper in yuan, including 17 pct VAT, minus SHFE third month

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