China Stock Market Tipped To Extend Tuesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Tuesday ended the modest two-day winning streak in which it had risen just 5 points or 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 2,880-point plateau and it's predicted to see more selling pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with heavy damage expected among the technology shares. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to lower and the Asian bourses are expected to open under pressure.

For the day, the index lost 12.55 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 2,879.30 after trading between 2,865.15 and 2,885.22. The Shenzhen Composite Index dipped 2.68 points or 0.17 percent to end at 1,559.51.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.17 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.63 percent, China Construction Bank perked 0.13 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.09 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 0.93 percent, Jiangxi Copper retreated 1.57 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 3.36 percent, Yankuang Energy declined 1.29 percent, PetroChina tanked 3.94 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) plummeted 3.43 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 1.68 percent, China Shenhua Energy surrendered 2.55 percent, Gemdale spiked 2.05 percent, Poly Developments rallied 1.83 percent, China Vanke advanced 0.90 percent and Bank of Communications was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly negative as the major averages opened slightly higher but quickly faded and finally finished mixed.

The Dow jumped 203.40 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 40,743.33, while the NASDAQ plummeted 222.79 points or 1.28 percent to close at 17,147.42 and the S&P 500 sank 27.10 points or 0.50 percent to end at 5,436.44.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement could have a significant impact on the outlook for the central bank's next decision in September.

The steep drop by the NASDAQ came as tech stocks came under pressure as the day progressed, weighed by the likes of Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Among tech stocks, semiconductor stocks saw some of the worst performances, resulting in a 3.9 percent nosedive by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The index slumped to its lowest closing level in well over two months.

Oil prices fell Tuesday amid continued concerns about the outlook for demand, and ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement and weekly inventory data later today. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for September ended down $1.08 or 1.42 percent at $74.73 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will see July results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs from the National Bureau of Statistics later this morning; in June, their scores were 49.5, 50.5 and 50.5, respectively.