Sector movers: Chinese demand hopes rally industrial miners

10th Apr 2013 14:46

Industrial metals and mining stocks were extending their recent gains on Wednesday after trade data from China showed that imports rebounded strongly in March.While a slowdown in export growth led to a surprise deficit of $884m last month (from a surplus of $15.3bn in February), imports jumped by a better-than-expected 14.1% after a 15.2% drop in February.The news sparked hopes that domestic demand in China is starting to pick up, something that the government wants to see given its attempt to move away from export-led growth.Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said that this is "essential if China is going to maintain its high growth rates in the years to come as it makes the transition to more consumption driven growth rather than being overly reliant on its exports."Demand hopes were boosting the share prices of many industrial metals stocks today in London, including steel heavyweight EVRAZ and iron-ore producers London Mining and Ferrexpo.Ferrexpo jumped around 20% on Tuesday after reporting a strong rise in first-quarter pellet production compared with the same period in 2012.The industrial metals sector has failed to join in with the wider stock market rally so far this year given concerns about a slowdown in China.It has now risen by over 11% since the start of this week after other data from China showed that inflation had slowed dramatically in March, sparking hopes that the People's Bank of China will hold off from tightening policy for the time being. Nevertheless, the category is still down a whopping 20% in the year to date Top performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 2,183.28 +3.48%Construction & Materials 3,795.91 +2.81%Forestry & Paper 9,209.51 +2.70%Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,245.51 +2.68%Automobiles & Parts 6,153.79 +2.33%Bottom performing sectors so far todayElectronic & Electrical Equipment 4,014.43 -0.45%Industrial Engineering 9,234.00 -0.23%BC