China Stock Market Likely To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had spiked more than 110 points or 3.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite now sits just beneath the 3,440-point plateau and it figures to see little movement on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on a mixed outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday as gains from the financials and oil companies were capped by weakness from the property sector.

For the day, the index added 17.31 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 3,439.28 after trading between 3,404.53 and 3,442.30.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.67 percent, while Bank of China improved 0.63 percent, China Construction Bank rose 0.25 percent, China Merchants Bank added 0.61 percent, Agricultural Bank of China perked 0.22 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.29 percent, Jiangxi Copper was up 0.04 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) gained 0.50 percent, Yankuang Energy shed 0.26 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.87 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 0.97 percent, Huaneng Power increased 0.41 percent, China Shenhua Energy rallied 1.18 percent, Gemdale plunged 3.49 percent, Poly Developments stumbled 1.76 percent and China Vanke slumped 1.31 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Wednesday but quickly faded and wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 47.21 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 43,958.19, while the NASDAQ sank 50.66 points or 0.26 percent to close at 19,230.74 and the S&P 500 perked 1.39 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,985.38.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came following the release of closely watched consumer price inflation data that came in line with estimates.

While the data increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will continue lowering interest rates next month, inflation remaining somewhat sticky led to uncertainty about the likelihood of future rate cuts.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 82.3 percent chance of another quarter point rate cut in December but a 60.2 percent chance rates will then be left unchanged in January.

Oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday thanks to short covering after recent sharp losses, while a firm dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December closed up $0.31 or 0.46 percent at $68.43 a barrel.