Soft Start Seen For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked higher in two straight sessions, collecting almost 35 points or 1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite now sits just beneath the 3,370-point plateau although it may open in the red on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with mild downside likely from the oil and technology stocks. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets also figure to see little movement.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the energy companies and mixed performances from the financial, property and resource stocks.

For the day, the index gained 21.98 points or 0.66 percent to finish at 3,367.99 after trading between 3,333.00 and 3,375.25. The Shenzhen Composite Index rallied 27.80 points or 1.38 percent to end at 2,037.66.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dipped 0.16 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.40 percent, China Merchants Bank lost 0.64 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.42 percent, China Life Insurance slid 0.29 percent, Jiangxi Copper perked 0.14 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) fell 0.38 percent, Yankuang Energy sank 0.45 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.79 percent, Huaneng Power advanced 0.84 percent, China Shenhua Energy eased 0.17 percent, Gemdale rose 0.19 percent, Poly Developments declined 0.29 percent, China Vanke was up 0.11 percent and China Construction Bank and PetroChina were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Wednesday's trade in negative territory before a late push saw them finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 139.53 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 43,408.47, while the NASDAQ slipped 21.33 points or 0.11 percent to close at 18,966.14 and the S&P 500 perked 0.13 points or 0.00 percent to end at 5,917.11.

The late rally was fueled by optimism ahead of the release of earnings results from tech darling Nvidia (NVDA); the results, which came after the markets closed, were solid but fell short of their lofty expectations.

The volatility seen late in the session also came as trading activity was somewhat subdued amid a lack of major U.S. economic data.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make more significant moves as they kept an eye on developments overseas amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

Oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday on weak demand concerns and data showing an increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December slipped $0.52 or 0.75 percent at $68.87 a barrel.