HANOI, April 8 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper prices fell on Thursday to their lowest in nearly a week, as rising inventories and falling premiums pointed to slowing demand in top consumer China.

The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell as much as 1.2% to 66,310 yuan($10,130.47) a tonne, its lowest since April 2.

Yangshan copper premium dropped to $54 a tonne, its lowest since Nov. 27, indicating weakening demand for imported metal from top consumer China.

Copper inventories in warehouses approved by the London Metal Exchange climbed to 150,325 tonnes, their highest since Nov. 26, while ShFE stockpiles were last at 188,359 tonnes, their highest since Sept. 18.

Three-month copper on the LME edged up 0.2% to $8,930.50 a tonne by 0152 GMT, as the dollar hovered near a more than two-week low, making greenback-priced metals more attractive to holders of other currencies.

FUNDAMENTALS

* LME aluminium fell 0.1% to $2,258 a tonne, zinc declined 0.1% to $2,830.50 a tonne and lead was down 0.9% at $1,976 a tonne.

* ShFE nickel fell 0.2% to 125,340 yuan a tonne and tin dropped 1.5% to 182,140 yuan a tonne, while zinc advanced 0.1% to 21,865 yuan a tonne.

* Copper prices are likely to remain strong, but the spread of COVID-19 variants could spark fresh volatility in the market, the chairman of top copper producer Codelco told Reuters.

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MARKETS NEWS

* Asian equities are poised to track Wall Street's cautious gains after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting reiterated its commitment to keep interest rates low until the U.S. economy makes a more secure recovery.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0600 Germany Industrial Orders MM Feb

0645 France Reserve Assets Total March

1230 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly

($1 = 6.5456 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)