China Shares Tipped To Return To The Upside

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the long break for the National Day holiday, the China stock market had ticked higher in two straight sessions, gathering more than 50 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,880-point plateau and it may see additional support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the outlook for interest rates, and on support from technology shares. The European and U.S. markets were mostly up and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on September 30 as gains from the properties and resource stocks were capped by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index added 20.25 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 3,882.78 after trading between 3,866.28 and 3,887.57. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 11.06 points or 0.44 percent to end at 2,519.42.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was down 0.41 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.38 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.76 percent, China Merchants Bank shed 0.66 percent, Bank of Communications skidded 1.18 percent, China Life Insurance eased 0.15 percent, Jiangxi Copper skyrocketed 10.01 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 1.10 percent, Yankuang Energy sank 0.75 percent, PetroChina retreated 1.35 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) fell 0.38 percent, Huaneng Power dropped 0.84 percent, China Shenhua Energy rose 0.39 percent, Gemdale surged 5.85 percent, Poly Developments jumped 1.81 percent and China Vanke climbed 1.17 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is fairly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but moved generally higher through the day, although the Dow slipped back under water at the close.

The Dow eased 1.20 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 46,601.78. while the NASDAQ jumped 255.01 points or 1.12 percent to close at 23,043.38 and the S&P 500 gained 39.13 points or 0.58 percent to end at 6,753.72.

The strength on Wall Street reflected a notable advance by shares of AI darling Nvidia (NVDA), which surged to a record high on reports of increased demand.

Stocks saw continued strength even after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's September revealed participants expressed a range of views about the likely future path of monetary policy.

Most judged that it likely would be appropriate to ease policy further over the remainder of this year, the Fed said, although some noted financial conditions warrant a cautious approach in the consideration of future policy changes.

Crude oil surged on Wednesday, extending gains from the past two sessions after OPEC said it would affect only a modest hike in production next month. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.89 or 1.44 percent at $62.62 per barrel.