dec 13 reuters  london copper prices often used as a gauge of global economic health edged higher on monday as investor appetite for riskier assets remained strong with expectations of a faster policy tightening by the us federal reserve mostly priced in threemonth copper on the london metal exchange was up 03 at 9538 a tonne as of 0400 gmt while the mosttraded january copper contract on the shanghai futures exchange inched 02 higher to 69520 yuan 1092755 a tonne asian stocks rose with investors seemingly confident markets can weather whatever comes from a host of central bank meetings this week including the likely early end to us policy stimulus the us central bank due to meet on dec 1415 is widely expected to signal faster tapering of its asset buying programme and an early start to rate hikes also meeting are the european central bank the bank of england and the bank of japan and all are heading toward normalising policy at their own often glacial pace meanwhile onwarrant lme inventories rose to 78300 tonnes their highest in more than two months but were still down 67 from august high of 238725 tonnes  lme aluminium was up 07 at 2624 a tonne zinc fell 01 to 3325 nickel rose 04 to 19830 a tonne and lead gained 05 to 22955 a tonne  shfe aluminium rose 06 to 18940 yuan a tonne nickel fell 05 to 144900 yuan a tonne lead climbed 17 to 15705 yuan a tonne and tin ticked 02 higher to 285110 yuan a tonne  chinas major copper smelters boosted output by 13 in november from the previous month as fewer producers carried out maintenance and power supply shortages eased statebacked research house antaike said on friday  major copper miners and chinese smelters have moved closer to agreement on treatment and refining charges tcrc for 2022 two sources with knowledge of the talks said on friday  mmg ltds 1208hk las bambas copper mine has increased its offer of jobs and investment to a peruvian province blockading a road used to transport the red metal in a bid to stave off a production shutdown next week meeting minutes seen by reuters show read more  for the top stories in metals and other news click  the dollar was quiet at the start of a week in which central bank meetings including by the federal reserve will likely drive currency markets while sterling fell slightly after boris johnson warned about the impact of the new covid19 variant reporting by eileen soreng in bengaluru editing by sherry jacobphillips