Chinese steel futures log weekly gains amid demand hopes

BEIJING, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Chinese steel futures gave up early gains of more than 2% on Friday to close almost flat, but posted weekly rise on hopes that policy stimulus would lift demand.

The country's new bank lending more than tripled in January from the previous month to a record, while growth of outstanding total social financing quickened to a six-month high as authorities seek to shore up slowing economic growth. read more

"The better-than-expected social financing confirms on the other side that infrastructure construction is speeding up," analysts with Galaxy Futures said in a note. "The fly in the ointment is that the property market has not recovered yet."

Construction-used steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange , for May delivery, stood at 4,905 yuan ($771.08) a tonne. The contract had risen as much as 2.6% earlier in the session. For the week, it gained 1.6%.

Hot rolled coils futures ended up 0.1% at 5,033 yuan ($791.20) per tonne and logged a 1.8% weekly gain.

Shanghai stainless steel futures , for March delivery, were unchanged at 18,300 yuan ($2,876.82) a tonne.

Baoshan Iron & Steel (600019.SS), China's top listed steel producer, raised its March delivery futures prices for hot rolled and cold rolled products by 350 yuan and 300 yuan per tonne, respectively.

Prices of steelmaking ingredients on the Dalian Commodity Exchange also rose.

Dalian coking coal futures leapt 1.5% to 2,352 yuan a tonne and coke prices advanced 2.4% to 3,095 yuan per tonne.

Benchmark iron ore futures surged as much as 5.9% to 850 yuan a tonne before easing in afternoon session to close at 805 yuan per tonne. They fell 2.9% this week.

China's state planner said it and the market regulator would send teams to the commodity exchange and major ports to look into iron ore inventories and trading in the spot and futures markets due to recent unusual price moves.

($1 = 6.3612 Chinese yuan)

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