How these 3 ASX 200 shares smashed the benchmark this week

With only a few hours of trading left in the week, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is just about flat since last Friday's close, but that hasn't held back these three rocketing ASX 200 shares.

This week's top performers are likely familiar names to you. And all three earn their revenue by digging resources from the ground.

Which Aussie miners lead the charge this week?

Read on!

Three ASX 200 shares racing higher this week

The third best-performing ASX 200 share on our list for this week is Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC).

Shares in the Aussie coal miner closed last Friday trading for $5.97. In afternoon trade today, shares are changing hands for $7.14, up 19.6%.

That's quite a five-day gain for a company with a market cap of $5.9 billion.

But it's a bit less than the 25.3% gains posted by Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) over the past week. Shares in the lithium and iron ore miner closed last Friday trading for $36.70 and are currently fetching $47.38 apiece.

That will be welcome news to shareholders, though less welcomed by the growing number of short sellers betting against the stock. On Monday, Mineral Resources was among the top 10 most shorted stocks on the ASX, with a short interest of 11.1%.

This brings us to Champion Iron Ltd (ASX: CIA), the top-performing ASX 200 share for the week (at the time of writing).

The Champion Iron share price closed last Friday at $5.73. Shares are currently swapping hands for $7.315 apiece, which sees Champion Iron stock up a whopping 26.5% over the five days.

What's spurring investor enthusiasm?

Mineral Resources is the only one of these top three ASX 200 share performers to release any price-sensitive news this week.

On Wednesday, the miner reported it had completed the sale of its 49% interest in the Western Australia Onslow Iron haul road to investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners. Mineral Resources said it had received the up-front cash consideration of $1.1 billion.

Commenting on the deal with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, Mineral Resources managing director Chris Ellison said, "This partnership is yet another strong endorsement of Onslow Iron's world-class credentials and showcases MinRes' ability to unlock significant capital from our portfolio of assets."

So, if no other price-sensitive announcement was made, how did these three ASX 200 shares race ahead of the benchmark?

The answer lies with China.

Namely the new stimulus measures announced by the People's Bank of China (PBoC) on Tuesday.

In an effort to boost China's sluggish growth back to the government's 5% target, the central bank lowered reserve requirements for Chinese banks by 0.50% and reduced down payment requirements on existing mortgages by the same amount.

Yesterday, Chinese leaders appeared to signal that additional measures would be forthcoming, likely helping further lift investor sentiment towards these ASX 200 shares.

This came as a boon to Whitehaven shares, with coal prices rising amid expectations of higher demand for both coking and thermal coal from China.

And it saw both iron ore and copper prices leap higher over the week, helping drive the share price gains for Mineral Resources and Champion Iron.

After dipping to US$90 per tonne earlier this week, iron ore is trading for US$100 per tonne today, up more than 11%.

As for copper, the red metal was trading for US$9,476 per tonne last Friday and has since soared 6.4% to US$10,081 per tonne today.

So, for this week at least, ASX 200 shares in the resource space are once again shining bright.

The post How these 3 ASX 200 shares smashed the benchmark this week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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