It has been an exceptionally good week to own Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) shares. How good? Well, the Fortescue share price was sitting at $16.73 a week ago. Today, it is up to $19.83 at the time of writing.
That's a gain worth a whopping 18.5%, including the 2% or so Fortescue has gained today. It's not often you see a $60 billion ASX share move 18% in just five trading days.
But it gets better. Fortescue has been on a bit of a tear all month. Since the start of November, the iron ore miner is up a rather incredible 34%. Yep, on 31 October, Fortescue was just $14.70 a share.
So what on earth is going on here that has propelled Fortescue shares so dramatically higher in just the past week?
Well, it seems that one word could sum it up: China.
Fortescue share price lights up amid China rumours
There have been a few developments out of China that have turbocharged investors' appetite for iron ore miners like Fortescue. As we covered on Monday, China has recently announced a relaxation of COVID travel rules. Quarantine times have been reduced for both inbound travellers and close COVID contacts.
Investors have been eagerly awaiting a sign that China might be preparing to relax its strict (and growth-stalling) 'zero-COVID' policies now that the Chinese Communist Party leadership elections are over. This could be a sign this is underway.
Further, as my Fool colleague James covered this week, the Chinese government is also reportedly extending more financial support to its struggling property sector. This sector of the Chinese economy has been partly responsible for the massive demand for iron ore and other commodities that we've seen from China in recent years. So this is another potentially positive factor for Fortescue.
All of this good (at least for iron ore miners) news coming out of the world's second-largest economy is probably what has propelled Fortescue shares higher over the past week. We'll have to wait and see what happens next for Fortescue and the other big ASX miners.
