Mild Upside Seen For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market headed south again on Friday, one session after snapping the two-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 50 points or 1.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,355-point plateau although it may tick higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with easing recession concerns offset by the worsening outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Friday following mixed performances from the financials, properties and resource stocks.

For the day, the index slipped 8.32 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 3,356.08 after trading between 3,354.12 and 3,386.31. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 7.76 points or 0.35 percent to end at 2,219.90.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.21 percent, while Bank of China and China Life Insurance both collected 0.30 percent, China Construction Bank shed 0.35 percent, China Merchants Bank perked 0.15 percent, Bank of Communications added 0.40 percent, Jiangxi Copper sank 0.80 percent, Yankuang Energy eased 0.08 percent, PetroChina increased 0.58 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) gained 0.49 percent, Huaneng Power fell 0.37 percent, China Shenhua Energy improved 0.75 percent, Gemdale climbed 1.27 percent, Poly Developments advanced 0.81 percent, China Vanke gathered 0.47 percent and China Fortune Land dropped 0.95 percent Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 46.45 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 31,338.15m while the NASDAQ rose 14.01 points or 0.12 percent to end at 11,635.31 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.24 points or 0.08 percent to close at 3,899.38. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.6 percent, the S&P jumped 1.9 percent and the Dow rose 0.8 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing stronger than expected U.S. job growth in June.

The data eased worries about the economy, but it also added to concerns about aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, gaining for a second straight day after the stronger than expected jobs report. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August jumped $2.06 or 2 percent at $104.79 a barrel, but WTI crude futures shed more than 3 percent in the week.

Closer to home, China will release June data for new yuan loans later today, with forecasts coming in at CNY2.400 trillion - up from CNY1.890 trillion previously.