Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.4 percent at $9,880 a ton, as of 0650 GMT Copper prices, often viewed as a gauge of global economic health, fell on Tuesday as tensions at the Ukrainian border prompted investors to scale back purchases of riskier assets. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.4 percent at $9,880 a ton, as of 0650 GMT, while the most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange eased 0.3 percent to 71,010 yuan ($11,179.86) a ton. “Current geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been weighing on prices along with expectations of interest rate increases by the Fed and other central banks due to persistently higher inflation,” CRU analyst Craig Lang said. With buying in China expected to start picking up in the next few weeks, visible copper stocks are likely to remain at multi-year lows in the near term, Lang added. Asian shares fell on the day as investors contemplated the implications of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the wake of which the Group of Seven large economies (G7) could impose economic and financial sanctions on Russia.