More Pain Predicted For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the three-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 55 points or 1.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,190-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, and concerns that the economy is slowing. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the financials, properties and resource and energy companies.

For the day, the index plunged 73.69 points or 2.26 percent to finish at 3,186.27 after trading between 3,155.19 and 3,231.26. The Shenzhen Composite Index tanked 64.32 points or 2.92 percent to end at 2,138.17.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China lost 0.46 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.66 percent, China Construction Bank dropped 0.90 percent, China Merchants Bank tumbled 1.77 percent, Bank of Communications fell 0.44 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 3.38 percent, Jiangxi Copper declined 2.66 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plummeted 4.54 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1.52 percent, PetroChina surrendered 1.92 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) sank 0.73 percent, Huaneng Power plunged 4.28 percent, China Shenhua Energy stumbled 1.65 percent, Gemdale slumped 3.16 percent, Poly Developments skidded 1.29 percent, China Vanke dropped 2.07 percent and China Fortune Land was down 2.76 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened deep in the red on Tuesday, pared some of the losses but still closed well in negative territory.

The Dow plummeted 402.23 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 32,396.17, while the NASDAQ dipped 20.22 points or 0.16 percent to close at 12,348.76 and the S&P 500 sank 27.44 points or 0.67 percent to end at 4,091.19.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came as tensions climbed the U.S. and China due to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

In economic news, the Labor Department said the number of job openings in the United States fell by 605,000 from a month earlier to 10.7 million in June, the lowest in nine months and below market expectations of 11 million.

Crude oil futures settled higher Tuesday, with traders weighing demand and supply prospects and looking ahead to this week's OPEC+ meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $0.53 or 0.6 percent at $94.42 a barrel.

Closer to home, China also will see July results for its services and composite indexes from Caixin later this morning; in June, their scores were 54.5 and 55.3, respectively.