China Bourse May Run Out Of Steam On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering almost 35 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 2,975-point plateau although investors are likely to cash in on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with tech shares likely to weigh after disappointing earnings. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the resource stocks, weakness from the oil companies and mixed performances from the financials and properties.

For the day, the index added 11.87 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 2,974.11 after trading between 2,972.42 and 2,993.30. The Shenzhen Composite Index advanced 16.28 points or 0.90 percent to end at 1,817.18.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 1.05 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.52 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.62 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.38 percent, Bank of Communications rallied 1.23 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.28 percent, Jiangxi Copper spiked 2.21 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) soared 2.79 percent, Yankuang Energy jumped 1.81 percent, PetroChina plummeted 5.54 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) tanked 2.32 percent, Huaneng Power declined 1.39 percent, China Shenhua Energy sank 0.75 percent, Poly Developments slumped 0.52 percent, China Vanke rose 0.34 percent and Gemdale was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but quickly headed south and finished near session lows.

The Dow dropped 105.45 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 33,035.93, while the NASDAQ plunged 318,65 points or 2.43 percent to close at 12,821,22 and the S&P 500 sank 60.91 points or 1.43 percent to end at 4,186.77.

The particularly steep drop by the NASDAQ reflected a negative reaction to quarterly results from Alphabet (GOOGL), with the Google parent plunging 9.5 percent after the company reported Q3 earnings that beat estimates but had weaker than expected revenue from its cloud business.

A renewed increase by treasury yields also weighed on the markets, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note spiking after ending the previous session little changed.

The surge by yields came as traders looked ahead to key economic data in the coming days, including a preliminary reading on third quarter GDP on Thursday and personal income on Friday.

Oil futures settled higher on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak amid likely disruptions in supply due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $1.65 or 1.97 percent at $85.39 a barrel.