BEIJING- Iron ore futures prices edged up on Friday and logged a weekly rise, thanks to a boost from the latest property stimulus and resilient demand for the key steelmaking ingredient in top consumer China, though lingering high stocks curbed gains.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 0.18 percent higher at 825 yuan ($113.52) a metric ton, a rise of 0.5 percent week-on-week.
The benchmark August iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 1.09 percent higher at $106.4 a ton, an increase of 1.2 percent so far this week.
China’s capital city Beijing has joined three other top-tier cities to reduce the cost of buying a home by cutting mortgage interest rates and the minimum down-payment ratio.
“These latest measures could drive an increase in residential property transactions and help alleviate the worst housing oversupply by inventory-clearance time in the country,” said ANZ analysts in a note.
