China Bourse Poised To Add To Its Winnings

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the three-day losing streak in which it had fallen more than 50 points or 1.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,320-point plateau and it may extend its gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, with bargain hunting expected to lift the oversold bourses - particularly among the technology shares. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and oil and resource companies.

For the day, the index jumped 52.95 points or 1.62 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,320.15 after moving as low as 3,262.29. The Shenzhen Composite Index spiked 44.18 points or 2.08 percent to end at 2,164.01.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.42 percent, while Bank of China added 0.62 percent, China Construction Bank gained 0.67 percent, China Merchants Bank rallied 2.11 percent, China Life Insurance soared 4.78 percent, Jiangxi Copper advanced 0.85 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) climbed 1.28 percent, Yankuang Energy spiked 2.38 percent, PetroChina strengthened 1.50 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.99 percent, Huaneng Power increased 0.55 percent, China Shenhua Energy accelerated 2.05 percent, Gemdale surged 4.09 percent, Poly Developments jumped 3.30 percent, China Vanke gathered 1.48 percent, China Fortune Land rose 0.32 percent and Bank of Communications was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday, swooned midday before accelerating higher into the close.

The Dow jumped 194.23 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 30,677.36, while the NASDAQ spiked 179.11 points or 1.62 percent to end at 11,232.19 and the S&P 500 gained 35.94 points or 0.95 percent to close at 3,795.73.

The markets continued to experience choppy trading as traders weighed going bargain hunting following recent weakness against the possibility of a global recession.

Traders kept an eye on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, with the Fed chief reiterating his commitment to moving quickly to bring inflation back down. But the Fed's plans to aggressively raise interest rates to combat inflation has led to concerns tighter monetary policy will tip the economy into a recession.

In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly lower last week.

Oil futures slid on Thursday, losing ground for a second straight session on concerns about outlook for energy demand amid rising possibility of a recession. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $1.92 or 1.8 percent at $104.27 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will see final current account data for the first quarter of 2022 later today; the current account surplus was $118.4 billion in the three months prior.