Soft Start Predicted For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, collecting almost 10 points or 0.3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 2,870-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on lingering concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead. The SCI finished barely higher on Wednesday following gains from the oil companies, weakness from the properties and mixed performances from the financial and resource companies.

For the day, the index perked 2.55 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 2,869.83 after trading between 2,857.72 and 2,886.94. The Shenzhen Composite Index eased 0.93 points or 0.06 percent to end at 1,566.10. Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.34 percent, Bank of China rose 0.22 percent, China Construction Bank added 0.40 percent, China Merchants Bank fell 0.38 percent, Bank of Communications perked 0.14 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 2.40 percent, Jiangxi Copper slid 0.25 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) gained 0.63 percent, PetroChina climbed 1.18 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) strengthened 1.24 percent, Huaneng Power gathered 0.27 percent, China Shenhua Energy jumped 1.91 percent, Gemdale plunged 2.24 percent, Poly Developments slumped 1.28 percent, China Vanke sank 1.31 percent and Yankuang Energy was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened solidly higher on Wednesday but faded as the day progressed, finally ending with significant losses.

The Dow stumbled 234.21 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 38,763.45, while the NASDAQ sank 171.05 points or 1.05 percent to end at 16,195.81 and the S&P 500 dropped 40.53 points or 0.77 percent to close at 5,199.50.

Stocks initially continued to benefit from bargain hunting, as traders picked up stocks at relatively reduced levels following the recent sell-off.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy continued to hang over the markets.

Oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday as data showed a much larger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $2.03 or 2.75 percent at $75.23 a barrel.