Steelmakers dropped as China Stocks Drop Most in Week

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- China’s stocks fell the most in a week as property developers plunged after the government intensified measures to curb gains in real-estate prices.

Steelmakers dropped on concern policy tightening may curb demand for raw materials. Baoshan Iron slid 1.9 percent to 6.73 yuan. Wuhan Iron & Steel Co. slid 1.4 percent to 4.28 yuan.

China’s inflation rate may accelerate to 5.4 percent this month, driven by an 11.5 percent jump in food prices, according to Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co.

Global investors are bracing for the end of China’s relentless economic growth, with 45 percent saying they expect a financial crisis there within five years. An additional 40 percent anticipate a Chinese crisis after 2016, according to a quarterly poll of 1,000 Bloomberg customers who are investors, traders or analysts. Only 7 percent are confident China will indefinitely escape turmoil.

“There is no doubt that China is in the midst of a speculative credit-driven bubble that cannot be sustained,” says Stanislav Panis, a currency strategist at TRIM Broker in Bratislava, Slovakia, and a participant in the Bloomberg Global Poll, which was conducted Jan. 21-24. Panis likens the expected fallout to the aftermath of the U.S. subprime-mortgage meltdown.

Jiangxi Copper Co., China’s biggest maker of the metal, gained 1 percent to 36.95 yuan after copper rose the most in two weeks in New York. Yunnan Copper Industry Co. added 1.3 percent to 24.32 yuan.