Lower Open Called For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, shedding almost 35 points or 1 percent in that span. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,350-point plateau and it's likely to drop again at Wednesday's open.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with weakness expected from the technology and oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, resource stocks and properties.

For the day, the index sank 26.99 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 3,346.04 after trading between 3,337.84 and 3,369.56. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 17.15 points or 0.82 percent to end at 2,074.31.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slid 0.44 percent, while Bank of China sank 0.92 percent, China Construction Bank dropped 0.93 percent, China Merchants Bank and Agricultural Bank of China both lost 0.58 percent, China Life Insurance stumbled 1.98 percent, Jiangxi Copper retreated 1.24 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 3.51 percent, Yankuang Energy climbed 1.05 percent, PetroChina slumped 1.14 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) skidded 1.02 percent, Huaneng Power shed 0.61 percent, China Shenhua Energy fell 0.36 percent, Gemdale tanked 2.15 percent, Poly Developments eased 0.12 percent and China Vanke tumbled 1.79 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and finished in similar fashion.

The Dow gained 159.95 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 43,621.16, while the NASDAQ plummeted 260.54 points or 1.35 percent to close at 19,026.39 and the S&P 500 sank 28.00 points or 0.47 percent to end at 5,955.25.

Significant weakness among technology stocks weighed on Wall Street, as reflected the notable slump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

Traders continued to express concerns about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence trade ahead of the release of AI darling Nvidia's (NVDA) fourth quarter results on Wednesday.

The selling pressure also spurred concerns about the outlook for the economy after a Conference Board report showing a significant deterioration by U.S. consumer confidence in February.

Oil futures settled sharply lower on Tuesday as concerns about demand and oversupply in the market weighed and pushed the commodity's prices to the lowest level in about 11 weeks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled lower by $1.77 or at $68.93 a barrel.