London Metal Exchange base metals bounced Friday due to short-covering and speculative investment interest, with further gains expected early next week, according to market players.

As the U.S. market opened a flurry of speculative and fund interest extended earlier strength across the base metals complex. By the afternoon kerb, however, prices retreated from their highs due to profit-taking ahead of the weekend.

LME copper rebounded after falling sharply Thursday on fears China may tighten its monetary policy to cool its economy.

Declining LME stocks as well as supply concerns at PT Freeport's Grasberg mine in Indonesia added to underlying copper price support, one broker said.

"Despite such a volatile week, base metals were well underpinned," he said. "After this consolidation, prices should look to move higher next week."

For the past several sessions, copper has traded in a broad range between $7,600 a metric ton and $8,100/ton.

The market continues to watch the developments out of Indonesia. PT Freeport said Friday it will continue to hold talks Saturday with representatives from Tongoi Papua, a group that lobbies the company on behalf of native Papuan employees.

Freeport said Friday it continues to mine and mill at reduced rates and ship concentrates from available production and inventories.

However, according to market sources, Freeport has been actively inquiring in the spot concentrates market for material in order to keep the shipments going and to avoid force majeure. The tightness in the copper spot market has made this difficult, they added.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing protests, the question going forward will be for how long can Freeport survive before having to declare force majeure, market sources noted.

Elsewhere at the LME, three-month zinc and nickel remained well supported due to spillover strength in the base and precious metals, as well as a decline in inventories.

According to LME data, zinc inventories fell 1,725 tons to 100,700 tons while nickel stocks fell 210 tons to 4,056 tons.

Copper's price rise, short-covering, and a general buoyancy in the base metals complex gave a boost to zinc prices, said Michael Skinner of Standard Bank in London.

Meanwhile, LME tin rebounded after an over 10% fall during the last few days triggered by news that PT Koba Tin, Indonesian's second-largest tin producer, was granted an export license.

Consumer buying continues to support LME tin at the lower prices levels as the metal tries to build a base, according to market players.