Copper prices edged up on Friday with hopes that the growth in exchange stockpiles could be coming to an end, but were on track for a weekly decline under pressure from a softer demand outlook in top metals consumer China.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.4% at $9,820.5 per metric ton in official open outcry trading. It has declined 1.2% so far this week.

China's data on Friday showed total imports unexpectedly shrank and hit a four-month low, while exports rose 8.6%. Chinese bank lending jumped less than expected in June, while annual growth of outstanding total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, slowed to 8.1%, a record low.

"The prolonged crisis in the property sector does not show signs of bottoming out yet with little hope for recovery near-term," said ING commodities analyst Ewa Manthey. "The low level of housing starts will continue to weigh on copper demand looking ahead, given the lag between starts and metals usage."

ING expects copper prices to decline further before they move upwards in the fourth quarter.

Copper, used in power and construction, is down 12% since reaching a record high of $11,104.50 on May 20, but is still up 15% since the start of 2024.

High global prices suppressed buying appetite in China, where unwrought copper imports declined to a 14-month low in June.

Meanwhile, copper inventories in the LME-registered warehouses were hovering near the highest in more than 2-1/2 years after an inflow to Asian warehouses nearly doubled them since mid-May.

However, according to the daily LME data, the on-warrant stocks declined to 190,500 tons after 5,900 tons were marked for delivery out, signalling that massive inflows could be coming to an end.

Inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1.7% this week after hitting a four-year peak last month.

LME aluminium rose 0.3% to $2,483 a ton in official activity, zinc dropped 1.1% to $2,928, lead moved 0.8% lower to $2,180, tin lost 2.1% to $33,945, and nickel added 0.7% to $16,925.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt in London; additional reporting by Siyi Liu; editing by Vijay Kishore)