Recruiting in China

Steel and iron ore futures in China steadied on Thursday, while other commodities fell as a key exchange stepped up measures to combat speculation behind a recent market surge.

Financial investors have charged into Chinese commodities futures this year, driving up contracts including iron ore, rebar, cotton and even eggs, leading many to warn of similarities with a boom in the country's stock markets, which reversed into a sharp crash last summer.

This week has seen a marked pullback as exchanges raised the cost of trading to avoid mirroring the outcome in stocks.

Coking coal futures were the hardest hit on Thursday, falling by the downside limit of 6 percent, after the Dalian Commodity Exchange imposed higher transaction fees for the fourth time in a week.

Dalian doubled the transaction fees on key steelmaking raw materials, coking coal and coke futures, from Thursday. It will also widen the trading limit for both contracts to 7 percent from 6 percent from Friday and increase the minimum margin to 9 percent from 8 percent

Steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the leader of last week's big spike, closed up 0.8 percent at 2,539 yuan ($391.8) a ton.

Cotton on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange fell 3.8 percent, Shanghai aluminum dropped 2.8 percent and Dalian soybeans fell 2.7 percent.