Copper prices continued to recover on Monday, supported by some exemptions from U.S. tariffs, hopes that top metals consumer China would unroll more stimulus measures and a weaker dollar.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.6% to $9,204 a metric ton at 1442 GMT after hitting $9,271.5 for its highest since April 4.

Copper is up 13.5% since sliding to a multi-month low of $8,105 a ton a week ago, when tariff sparring between the U.S. and China - the world's two largest economies - exacerbated fears over global economic growth.

"The market seems to have found a base and seen the lows for now," one metals trader said, adding that the recent fall in copper prices attracted buying interest.

In the latest twist, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration granted exclusions from tariffs on smartphones, computers and some other electronics imported largely from China.

The exemptions may be short-lived after Trump said on Sunday that he would be announcing the tariff rate on imported semiconductors this week.

On the technical front, the LME copper contract is facing resistance from the 100-day moving average at $9,279.

Meanwhile, the spread between LME cash copper and the three-month contract was volatile ahead of this week's LME contract settlement. It was last at a discount of $23.5, compared with a premium of $37 a ton at Friday's close and a discount of $38 a week ago.

In China, official data showed that the country's January-March imports of copper and copper products fell 5.2% as a persisting premium of Comex copper against London prices prompted a redirection of some of the shipments to the U.S.

New bank loans in China rebounded more than expected in March, while the annual growth of outstanding total social financing (TSF), viewed as an indicator of future industrial metals demand, rose to 8.4% from 8.2% in February due to an acceleration in government bond issuance to boost the economy.

In other metals, LME aluminium eased 0.4% to $2,387.50 a ton, zinc fell 0.7% to $2,632, lead added 0.4% to $1,922, while tin climbed 0.5% to $31,315 and nickel jumped 1.5% to $15,290.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt in London. Additional reporting by Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru. Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)