Gelonghui, April 30 | Huatai Securities released a report indicating that Jiangtong's net profit for the first quarter was 1.72 billion yuan, down 2.3% from year to year and up 9.8% from quarter to quarter. The bank said that the quarterly improvement in performance is expected to benefit from the rise in copper prices during the period. According to the report, the resonance between the Fed's interest rate cut cycle and the restart of the global manufacturing cycle has driven the rise in copper prices in this round. Considering the tighter supply and demand structure of the copper concentrate market and the recovery of manufacturing in major global economies, the report raised the copper price forecast for this year and next two years from US$8,800 and US$10,000 per ton, respectively, to US$9,500 and US$11,000, respectively. The net profit forecast for each year from 2024 to 2026 was raised to $8.86 billion, $10.33 billion and $10.49 billion respectively, maintaining the “buy” rating. The target price for H shares was raised from HK$16 to HK$19.1.