China Stock Market Has Flat Lead For Tuesday's Trade

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in consecutive trading days, collecting just 5 points or 0.2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,890-point plateau and it's likely to remain rangebound again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is a holding pattern ahead of Wednesday's FOMC rate decision and announcement. The European and U.S. markets ended mixed and flat and the Asian bourses are likely to follow suit.

The SCI finished barely higher on Monday as gains from the financials and resource stocks were capped by weakness from the property sector.

For the day, the index perked 0.95 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 2,891.85 after trading between 2,878.58 and 2,898.95.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 0.84 percent, while Bank of China spiked 2.38 percent, China Construction Bank jumped 1.89 percent, China Merchants Bank rose 0.25 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.54 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.09 percent, Jiangxi Copper perked 0.14 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) gathered 0.29 percent, Yankuang Energy slumped 1.34 percent, PetroChina added 0.44 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) strengthened 1.82 percent, Huaneng Power climbed 0.97 percent, China Shenhua Energy was up 0.10 percent, Gemdale tumbled 1.68 percent, Poly Developments plummeted 3.70 percent and China Vanke tanked 2.19 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Monday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 49.41 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 40,539.93, while the NASDAQ added 12.32 points or 0.07 percent to close at 17,370.20 and the S&P 500 rose 4.44 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,463.54.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the accompanying statement for additional clues about a possible rate cut in September.

Investors are also waiting for corporate earnings this week from companies that include Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN).

Crude oil prices fell to a seven-week low on Monday amid concerns about the outlook for demand from China, and ahead of Thursday's OPEC meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.35 or 1.8 percent at $75.81 a barrel.