Little Movement Anticipated For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 50 points or 1.9 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,740-point plateau and it's expected to remain in that neighborhood again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key inflation data later this week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished slightly higher on Tuesday as gains from the financials and oil companies were capped by weakness from the resource and property stocks.

For the day, the index gained 7.70 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 2,744.19 after trading between 2,718.63 and 2,750.12. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 4.01 points or 0.27 percent to end at 1,500.24.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.07 percent, while Bank of China rallied 2.56 percent, China Construction Bank spiked 2.53 percent, China Merchants Bank dipped 0.17 percent, Agricultural Bank of China jumped 1.77 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.12 percent, Jiangxi Copper shed 0.64 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) lost 0.63 percent, Yankuang Energy dropped 0.99 percent, PetroChina improved 1.02 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) accelerated 1.88 percent, Huaneng Power eased 0.15 percent, China Shenhua Energy gained 0.73 percent, Gemdale and China Vanke both skidded 1.10 percent and Poly Developments slumped 1.19 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and bounced back and forth across the line before finishing on opposite sides.

The Dow shed 92.63 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 40,736.96, while the NASDAQ jumped 141.28 points or 0.84 percent to close at 17,025.88 and the S&P 500 added 24.47 points or 0.45 percent to end at 5,495.52.

The volatility seen over the course of the trading day came as traders looked ahead to the release of closely watched consumer and producer price inflation data on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

The data could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

The Fed is almost universally expected to begin lowering interest rates next week, but there is some debate about if the rate cut will be 25 basis points or 50.

Crude oil prices slumped on Tuesday, ahead of the inflation data and on concerns over the health of the global economy. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery stumbled $2.43 or 3.54 percent to finish at $66.28 per barrel.