Soft Start Anticipated For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Monday ended the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 55 points or 1.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,280-point plateau although it's likely to see renewed selling pressure on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with profit taking expected amid concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down, and the Asian markets are tipped to trend generally lower as well.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource and energy companies.

For the day, the index jumped 50.04 points or 1.55 percent to finish at 3,278.10 after trading between 3,226.23 and 3,278.47. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 31.96 points or 1.48 percent to end at 2,191.96.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 0.92 percent, while Bank of China and Bank of Communications both collected 0.67 percent, China Construction Bank strengthened 1.46 percent, China Merchants Bank rallied 2.18 percent, China Life Insurance spiked 2.89 percent, Jiangxi Copper accelerated 4.25 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surged 5.71 percent, Yankuang Energy soared 5.38 percent, PetroChina improved 2.79 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.99 percent, Huaneng Power climbed 4.56 percent, China Shenhua Energy advanced 2.62 percent, Gemdale skyrocketed 5.02 percent, Poly Developments perked 4.50 percent, China Vanke increased 1.59 percent, China Fortune Land gathered 3.86 percent and Beijing Capital Development gained 0.92 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages couldn't hold on to early gains, sinking as the day progressed to close firmly in the red.

The Dow tumbled 215.65 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 31,072.61, while the NASDAQ sank 92.37 points or 0.81 percent to end at 11,360.05 and the S&P 500 lost 32.31 points or 0.84 percent to close at 3,830.85.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders continued to pick up stocks at reduced levels, while positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to upbeat earnings news from Goldman Sachs (GS) and others.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders continued to worry about the economic outlook ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

In U.S. economic news, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing a substantial deterioration in U.S. homebuilder confidence in the month of July.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Monday with traders assessing crude supply levels amid concerns over gas supply from Russia. A weak dollar also contributed significantly to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for August ended higher by $5.01 or 5.1 percent at $102.60 a barrel.