BEIJING- Dalian iron ore futures continued to rise for the third trading session on Thursday, but gains narrowed as weaker-than-expected industrial data in top steel consumer China weighed on investor sentiment.
Investment in the property sector, China’s largest steel consumer, fell at the fastest pace since at least 2001, down 21.5 percent year-on-year, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data on Thursday.
Similarly, property sales by floor area also slumped deeper, falling 19.7 percent from an 11.8 percent drop in April.
The disappointing data sent downward pressure to the ferrous market, said analysts, despite the latest monetary stimulus, as China’s central bank cut the borrowing cost of its medium-term policy loans for the first time in 10 months.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) lowered the rate on 237 billion yuan of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions by 10 basis points to 2.65 percent from 2.75 percent previously, in line with market expectations.
