China Stock Market May Hand Back Monday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has climbed higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had eased six points or 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,050-point plateau and it figures to stay rangebound again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky ahead of a possible U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the resource stocks were limited by weakness from the properties and financials.

For the day, the index rose 7.56 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 3,046.53 after trading between 3,028.17 and 3,048.62. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 10.61 points or 0.56 percent to end at 1,914.41.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.42 percent, while Bank of China dipped 0.25 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.62 percent, China Merchants Bank skidded 1.13 percent, Bank of Communications sank 0.69 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.13 percent, Jiangxi Copper gained 0.68 percent, Yankuang Energy perked 0.05 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.85 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rallied 1.48 percent, Huaneng Power slid 0.26 percent, China Shenhua Energy and Gemdale both slumped 0.55 percent, Poly Developments declined 0.63 percent, China Vanke tumbled 1.43 percent and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened sharply lower on Monday before recovering to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 54.77 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 34,337.87, while the NASDAQ slipped 30.36 points or 0.22 percent to close at 13,767.74 and the S&P 500 fell 3.69 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,411.55.

The early weakness on Wall Street came as some traders looked to cash in on last week's rally, which lifted the tech-heavy NASDAQ to a nearly two-month closing high.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to news credit rating agency Moody's has lowered its outlook for the U.S. credit rating to negative from stable amid concerns about a possible government shutdown.

The selling pressure was offset by a New York Federal Reserve report showing a modest decrease in consumer inflation expectations, sparking optimism the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates.

Crude oil prices moved up on Monday, gaining for a third straight session amid some optimism about the outlook for energy demand, as well as a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $78.26 a barrel.