China Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in consecutive trading days, surrendering almost 40 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,800-point plateau and it's likely to extend its losses again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on concerns over the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Tuesday as losses from the financials were offset by gains in the property sector.

For the day, the index fell 8.06 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 2,802.98 after trading between 2,794.91 and 2,814.90. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 16.03 points or 1.06 percent to end at 1,530.73.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tanked 3.03 percent, while Bank of China tumbled 2.32 percent, China Construction Bank surrendered 2.14 percent, China Merchants Bank dropped 0.97 percent, Agricultural Bank of China plunged 4.48 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.12 percent, Jiangxi Copper added 0.40 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) advanced 0.89 percent, Yankuang Energy sank 0.96 percent, PetroChina plummeted 3.33 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) retreated 4.30 percent, Huaneng Power slumped 1.44 percent, China Shenhua Energy stumbled 2.19 percent, Gemdale surged 8.33 percent, Poly Developments rose 0.51 percent and China Vanke rallied 1.56 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened firmly in the red and only got worse as the day progressed.

The Dow plunged 626.15 points or 1.51 percent to finish at 40,836.93, while the NASDAQ plummeted 577.33 points or 3.26 percent to close at 17,136.30 and the S&P 500 tumbled 119.47 points or 2.12 percent to end at 5,528.93.

The sell-off on Wall Street came after the Institute for Supply Management noted continued decline by U.S. manufacturing activity in August. A separate report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed a modest decrease by U.S. construction spending in July.

The weakness on Wall Street also came as some traders look to cash in on the previous session's gains amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

The Federal Reserve is almost universally expected to lower rates at its next meeting later this month, but there is some disagreement about the pace of rate cuts. According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, there is a 63.0 percent chance of a quarter-point rate cut later this month and a 37.0 percent chance of a half-point rate cut.

Oil prices fell sharply to a nine-month low on Tuesday on prospects of oversupply from OPEC weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $70.34 a barrel.