Investec notes that Australian heavyweight miners continue leading the gains in Asia on strong commodity prices over the last weekend. Of note, Prime Minister Abbott is expected to take new proposed legislation to scrap the carbon tax to parliament yesterday. Copper has now had its longest rally in six months, hitting $6,840.50/t on Friday, as data showed that Shanghai inventories fell to their lowest since 2011, down 7.8% WoW to 75,500 t .

The copper rally comes as the probe into stockpiles and collateral financing at Qingdao Port has already started to see some migration of physical to the near-empty LME warehouses in places like South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Iron ore rose to $92.10/t, up 1.5%, on the stronger outlook for the US economy and on the potential for some further Chinese stimulus.

In China, money-market rate rises rose the most in over a month on Friday after the local papers hinted that the government may begin “minor stimulus measures.” The PBoC has said though that it is not looking to change from its current “appropriately tight”  monetary policy in 2H, but that it will ”fine-tune” and make targeted RRR adjustments.