China Stock Market Overdue For Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in eight straight sessions, surging more than 300 points or 10.9 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,000-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on optimism over earnings, although profit taking may take hold later in the day. The European and U.S. markets saw mostly modest gains and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher again on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index gained 16.52 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 3,004.88 after trading between 2,979.97 and 3,009.14.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.11 percent, while Bank of China advanced 0.88 percent, China Construction Bank collected 0.56 percent, China Merchants Bank added 0.46 percent, Bank of Communications rallied 1.41 percent, China Life rose 0.16 percent, Jiangxi Copper spiked 2.14 percent, Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) strengthened 1.15 percent, Yankuang Energy shed 0.66 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) sank 0.78 percent, Petrochina retreated 1.52 percent, China Shenhua Energy plunged 2.40 percent, Gemdale jumped 1.87 percent, Poly Development perked 0.10 percent, China Vanke gained 0.49 percent, Haitong Securities improved 0.33 percent, Wanhua Chemical Group slumped 1.50 percent and Huaneng Power was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened solidly higher on Friday but faded as the day progressed, with the NASDAQ finishing in the red.

The Dow added 62.43 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 39,131.53, while the NASDAQ sank 44.78 points or 0.28 percent to close at 15,996.82 and the S&P 500 rose 1.77 points or 0.03 percent to end at 5,088.80.

For the holiday-shortened week, the S&P 500 surged 1.7 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 1.4 percent and the Dow advanced 1.3 percent.

The early upward move reflected an extension of the rally seen in during Thursday's session, which came on the heels of upbeat earnings news from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA).

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders took a breather following Thursday's surge.

Crude oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday as concerns about the outlook for demand and the recent data showing a jump in U.S. crude inventories weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April dropped $2.12 or 2.65 percent at $76.49 a barrel.