SHANGHAI: Dalian iron ore futures dipped further on Thursday while prices in Singapore rebounded, as investors reassessed demand prospects in top consumer China amid its property woes and stimulus efforts.

The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 0.36% lower at 968 yuan ($134.79) a metric ton, extending its fall to a third session.

The benchmark March iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 1.09% higher at $131.20 a ton, as of 0710 GMT. Prices of the key steelmaking ingredient remained under some pressure as “increased uncertainty in China’s real estate sector and the weak factory data weighed on sentiment”, analysts at ANZ bank said in a note. Concerns about the recovery of the property sector, the top steel consumer in the world’s second-largest economy, resurfaced after a Hong Kong court on Monday ordered the liquidation of indebted property giant China Evergrande Group.

However, Beijing’s recent efforts to support its property sector have helped ease some of those concerns.

A state-backed property project in China has received the first development loan under a so-called whitelist mechanism and two more major cities have eased home-buying curbs, state media reported, as concerns mount about the liquidation of Evergrande.

Additionally, China Development Bank and Agricultural Development Bank of China will provide credit lines worth 142.6 billion yuan to fund the renovation of “urban villages” in the southern city of Guangzhou, the city government said.

China’s new home prices rose in January at the fastest monthly pace since August 2021, according to a survey. Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE were also mixed, with coking coal ticking up 0.41%, while coke fell 1.03%.

Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were broadly down. Rebar dipped 0.69%, hot-rolled coil slipped 0.52%, stainless steel lost 1.65%, and wire rod shed 0.44%.