BEIJING: Iron ore futures surged to a near three-month high on Monday, propelled by improving demand outlook on the back of top consumer China’s latest property stimulus and a raft of monetary easing policies.

The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) jumped 10.71% to finish at 821.5 yuan ($117.14) a metric ton.

Earlier in the session, the contract hit 835 yuan, its highest since July 16.

The benchmark November iron ore on the Singapore Exchange surged 9.76% to $112.05 a ton as of 0710 GMT, after hitting an intraday high of $113, its highest since July 5.

Both benchmarks posted gains of more than 10% last week.

China’s central bank on Sunday said it would tell banks to lower mortgage rates for existing home loans before Oct. 31, as part of sweeping policies to support the country’s beleaguered property market, the largest steel consumer.

This came after Beijing unveiled its biggest stimulus since the pandemic last Tuesday and lowered interest rates last Friday to pull the economy out of its deflationary funk and back toward the government’s growth target.

Additionally, the three big cities - Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai - lifted key home purchase restrictions.

“Efforts to reduce inventory of unsold property will significantly shorten the time to when new construction activity will emerge,” ANZ analysts said.

Shares of Chinese property developers soared in response to the stimulus, with the mainland’s CSI 300 Real Estate index jumping around 9%.

Lingering expectation of strong fiscal stimulus ahead in the world’s second-largest economy also supported the persistent upward momentum, analysts said.

Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE also soared to over two-month highs, with coking coal and coke up 10.98% and 10.99%, respectively.

Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced sharply. Rebar, hot-rolled coil and wire rod all added about 7% to hit the upper limit of their trading bands, while stainless steel rallied about 3.6%.