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Copper futures in New York charged to a 2-1/2-week high early Monday, fueled by chart-based buying after prices penetrated key technical points, sources said.

"The buying that has come in this morning has not been that sizable ... there just wasn't anything standing in its way on the way up. Some (buy) stops were set off above $3.50, which took us up to the highs, but that is about it," said one floor dealer.

By 10:34 a.m. EDT (1434 GMT), copper for December delivery rallied 10.50 cents, or 3 percent, at $3.5185 a lb. on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, moving between $3.3960 and $3.5250, its loftiest level since Sept. 27.

Floor dealers noted the Sept. 27 peak at $3.54 would be the next short-term target for the market to hurdle before making a run at $3.60.

Spot October climbed 9.15 cents to its morning peak at $3.49.

Volume at 10 a.m. was estimated at 5,000 lots.

The ongoing strength in the rest of the base metals complex was seen offering support to the copper market as the overall tightness in the group bolstered the bullish sentiment.

Three-months tin , three-months nickel and lead futures all rallied to a new contract highs on the London Metal Exchange on Monday. [nL16619962]

"Indeed, with equities also putting in solid gains, and with oil and gold pointing higher again, it looks as though there is a broad-based sense of optimism running through the markets," said William Adams, metals analyst with BaseMetals.com

However, slack demand from China, the world's largest consumer of the red metal, continued to plague upside momentum.

China imported 39.6 percent less refined copper and alloy in the first nine months than in the year-ago period, official Customs figures showed on Monday. Exports jumped 232.4 percent over the same period. [nPEK329314]

Inventory data showed London Metal Exchange-monitored warehouse stocks rose 475 tonnes to 114,600 tonnes on Monday, while COMEX stocks rose 1,008 short tons to 23,210 tons on Friday.

The latest weekly Commitments of Traders data issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed the speculative short position in the market grew 8 percent in the week ended Oct. 10.

Noncommercial players in copper -- mostly speculators -- held a net short position of 13,287 contracts as of Tuesday, up from 12,293 contracts a week earlier.

Robin Bhar, metals analyst at investment bank UBS, noted this was the largest net short position in COMEX copper futures since October 2002, and suggested that concerns over a global economic slowdown were likely influencing the bearish short position.

LME three-months copper surged $255 to $7,715 a tonne by the midday point, compared with a Friday settlement at $7,460 a tonne.