China's steel futures ended a three-day winning streak on Tuesday after hitting a 7-1/2-year peak in the previous session, as cautious investors waited on the release of GDP data. Benchmark Shanghai rebar prices were down 1.1 percent at 3,780 yuan ($563.55) when the market closed at 0700 GMT. It jumped to a multi-year high of 3,843 yuan on Monday.
Hot-rolled coil futures dipped 1.1 percent to 3,695 yuan a tonne. Despite some losses, steel prices have been supported by firm demand from downstream sectors, while expectations that Beijing and Washington may reach a trade deal have also buoyed investor sentiment.
Meanwhile, China's new home prices rose 0.6 percent in March from a month earlier, quickening from 0.5 percent growth in February, according to Reuters calculation based on official data on Tuesday, a sign of a warming property market amid loosening curbs in some cities. "General market sentiment is improving amid strong macro-data. Both supply and demand in the steel sector are increasing, which would help to buoy steel prices," said analysts from Huatai Futures.
China will release first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) and March activity data on Wednesday, which will give clearer indication of the country's economic performance. A Reuters poll on Friday suggested that China's economic growth may slow to a near 30-year low of 6.2 percent this year, weighed by sluggish demand at home and abroad despite a flurry of policy support measures.
Most of steel-making raw ingredients dropped alongside steel prices on Tuesday. The most-active coking coal futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange edged down 0.3 percent to 1,319.5 yuan a tonne, while the coke contract for September delivery rose 0.7 percent to 2,061 yuan. Dalian iron ore futures dropped 3.2 percent to 632.5 yuan.
On Monday, China's coal hub Linfen, also one of the country's most polluted cities, said it plans to extend its winter restrictions on heavy industries to the end of the third quarter this year.
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