China Shares Expected To Open Under Pressure On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked higher in six straight sessions, advancing more than 180 points or 7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite now sits just beneath the 2,900-point plateau although it's overdue for profit taking on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with many of the overbought regional bourses likely to see profit taking. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index improved 33.18 points or 1.16 percent to finish at 2,896.31 after trading between 2,889.05 and 2,952.45. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 19.30 points or 1.24 percent to end at 1,575.28.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.67 percent, while China Construction Bank added 0.78 percent, China Merchants Bank soared 3.08 percent, Bank of Communications climbed 1.12 percent, China Life Insurance surged 3.53 percent, Jiangxi Copper rallied 1.35 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) jumped 1.93 percent, Yankuang Energy gained 0.55 percent, PetroChina rose 0.48 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.59 percent, Huaneng Power perked 0.15 percent, China Shenhua Energy strengthened 1.46 percent, Gemdale improved 1.23 percent, Poly Developments advanced 1.47 percent, China Vanke accelerated 2.67 percent and Bank of China was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but trended lower throughout the session, finally ending mostly in the red.

The Dow stumbled 293.47 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 41,914.75, while the NASDAQ perked 7.68 points or 0.04 percent to close at 18,082.21 and the S&P 500 dipped 10.67 points or 0.19 percent to end at 5,722.26.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent strength, which has lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to record highs.

In economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing new home sales pulled back sharply in the month of August.

Data on weekly jobless claims, durable goods orders and personal income and spending are due later this week, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech later today is also in focus.

Oil prices fell sharply Wednesday on uncertainty about the outlook for demand and easing concerns over supply disruptions in Libya. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $1.87 or 2.6 percent at $69.69 a barrel.