China Bourse May Hand Back Monday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the five-day losing streak in which it had surrendered almost 100 points or 2.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,270-point plateau although it's predicted to open under pressure on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing fears of a financial crisis. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead. The SCI finished sharply higher on Monday following gains among the financials and resource and energy stocks, although the properties remained soft. For the day, the index jumped 38.62 points or 1.20 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,268.70 after moving as low as 3,228.12. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 9.25 points or 0.44 percent to end at 2,096.42. Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China strengthened 1.38 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.61 percent, China Construction Bank climbed 1.22 percent, China Merchants Bank perked 0.06 percent, Bank of Communications improved 1.20 percent, China Life Insurance jumped 1.76 percent, Jiangxi Copper gathered 1.26 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) spiked 2.38 percent, Yankuang Energy advanced 1.05 percent, PetroChina surged 4.41 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) skyrocketed 6.14 percent, Huaneng Power rose 0.36 percent, China Shenhua Energy soared 3.20 percent, Gemdale retreated 1.36 percent, Poly Developments slumped 1.19 percent, China Vanke was up 0.06 percent and China Fortune Land and China Minsheng Bank were unchanged. The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Monday bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 90.50 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 31,819.14, while the NASDAQ added 49.96 points or 0.45 percent to close at 11,188.84 and the S&P 500 dipped 5.83 points or 0.15 percent to end at 3,855.76.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came on continued concerns over the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse - which triggered heavy selling, particularly in the banking sector.

Over the weekend, the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said they would "fully protect" depositors, including those with assets above the federally guaranteed $250,000 limit, but traders were not reassured.

Investors are also nervous ahead of the ECB meeting and key inflation data due out later this week.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid worries that a U.S. banking debacle may follow last week's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures settled lower by $1.88 or 2.4 percent at $74.80 a barrel.