China’s Stocks Fluctuate; Steel Producers Rise, Brokerages Fall

China’s stocks fluctuated. Metals producers rose on the prospect that government-imposed output curbs will boost prices, while insurers led the broader market lower as investors speculated recent gains were overdone.

Maanshan Iron & Steel Co. climbed 7.3 percent and Aluminum Corp of China Ltd. added 2.1 percent as JPMorgan Chase & Co. said metal prices have “further upside” on government policies to reduce energy consumption. Ping An Insurance Co. dropped 1.7 percent.

“The government’s plan to save energy will benefit big players in energy-consuming industries such as steel because it will weed out smaller rivals,” said Wei Wei, an analyst at West China Securities Co. in Shanghai. “After the recent rally, valuations of big-cap stocks aren’t cheap anymore.”

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China’s stock exchanges, lost 8.69, or 0.3 percent, to 2,687.56 as of 10:19 a.m. local time, dropping from its highest level since May 13. The CSI 300 Index fell 0.2 percent to 2,967.5.

The Shanghai measure has rebounded 14 percent from this year’s low on July 5 as investors speculated the government would ease monetary policy to spur growth. That’s trimmed this year’s loss to 18 percent, after the government increased down- payment requirements on home sales and ordered banks to set aside more deposits as reserves to curb asset bubbles