Win Streak May Continue For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, improving more than 25 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,990-point plateau and it may see additional support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside on optimism for the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the financial shares and energy stocks were capped by weakness from the properties and oil companies.

For the day, the index advanced 21.88 points or 0.74 percent to finish at 2,991.44 after trading between 2,930.42 and 2,995.67. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 17.58 points or 0.95 percent to end at 1,865.36.

Among the actives, Bank of China shed 0.51 percent, while China Construction Bank rose 0.31 percent, China Merchants Bank advanced 0.95 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.35 percent, China Life Insurance climbed 0.98 percent, Jiangxi Copper lost 0.41 percent, Yankuang Energy surged 3.38 percent, PetroChina dipped 0.15 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) tumbled 2.01 percent, Huaneng Power jumped 1.67 percent, China Shenhua Energy rallied 1.64 percent, Gemdale plunged 2.24 percent, Poly Developments retreated 1.64 percent, China Vanke slumped 1.39 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is modestly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all turned higher to finish with mild gains.

The Dow jumped 157.06 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 36,404.93, while the NASDAQ added 28.51 points or 0.20 percent to close at 14,432.49 and the S&P 500 rose 18.07 points or 0.39 percent to end at 4,622.44.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, although stocks continued to benefit from the optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Optimism the Fed could pivot to cutting interest rates as soon as March 2024 has contributed to recent strength on Wall Street, although last Friday's strong than expected jobs data has led to speculation the Fed could wait until May to begin lowering rates.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Monday due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $71.32 a barrel.