China Bourse May Run Out Of Steam On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 25 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just shy of the 3,225-point plateau although the rally may stall on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking expected ahead of key jobs data from the United States later in the week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished slightly higher on Tuesday following gains from the properties, weakness from the financials and a mixed performance from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index picked up 2.76 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 3,224.21 after trading between 3,186.63 and 3,230.63. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 9,84 points or 0.49 percent to end at 2,011.99.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.62 percent, while Bank of China retreated 1.26 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.46 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.15 percent, Bank of Communications declined 1.34 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.41 percent, Jiangxi Copper dipped 0.16 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) jumped 1.68 percent, Yankuang Energy stumbled 1.68 percent, PetroChina added 0.66 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dropped 0.92 percent, Huaneng Power slid 0.49 percent, China Shenhua Energy sank 0.95 percent, Gemdale jumped 1.94 percent, Poly Developments was up 0.08 percent, China Vanke rallied 2.35 percent, China Fortune Land surged 3.18 percent and Beijing Capital Development spiked 2.82 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is not encouraging as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but started to trend lower as the day progressed, with the Dow finishing in the red.

The Dow shed 50.56 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 33,042.78, while the NASDAQ rose 41.74 points or 0.32 percent to close at 13,017.43 and the S&P 500 perked 0.07 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,205.52.

The early strength on Wall Street materialized on the weekend's news that an agreement had been reached to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous default by the U.S. government.

Much of that had already been priced in, however, and stocks faded ahead of Friday's jobs report amid concerns about further interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Conference Board said consumer confidence in the U.S. saw a modest decrease from an upwardly revised level in May.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, weighed down by doubts about China's economic recovery and uncertainty over whether the Congress will pass the debt deal this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $69.46 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will see May results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs later this morning. In April, their scores were 49.2, 56.4 and 54.4, respectively.