China Shares Likely To Open To The Upside On Friday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Thursday halted the two-day slide in which it had slumped more than 30 points or 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,230-point plateau and it's expected to open in the green again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on continued solid momentum ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and oil companies.

For the day, the index added 16.54 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 3,230.16 after trading between 3,229.57 and 3,273.52. The Shenzhen Composite Index slipped 7.16 points or 0.37 percent to end at 1,913.26.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China jumped 3.42 percent, while Bank of China collected 2.89 percent, China Construction Bank accelerated 3.30 percent, China Merchants Bank gained 0.96 percent, Agricultural Bank of China spiked 2.64 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 4.98 percent, Jiangxi Copper sank 0.72 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) dropped 0.91 percent, Yankuang Energy improved 0.76 percent, PetroChina rose 0.36 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) added 0.50 percent, Huaneng Power shed 0.63 percent, China Shenhua Energy advanced 0.84 percent, Gemdale and Poly Developments both climbed 1.08 percent and China Vanke soared 4.84 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but climbed steadily as the day progressed, so they were all in the green by the session's end.

The Dow surged 408.34 points or 0.92 percent to finish at 44,565.07, while the NASDAQ added 44.34 points or 0.22 percent to close at 20,053.68 and the S&P 500 gained 32.34 points or 0.53 percent to end at 6,118.71.

The markets continued to benefit from recent upward momentum, which has help stocks largely offset the sell-off seen earlier this month.

Biotechnology stocks showed a strong move to the upside as the day progressed, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 1.8 percent to its best closing level in almost four years.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims saw further upside last week.

Oil prices fell on Thursday after data showed crude inventories in the U.S. fell less than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March closed down $0.82 or about 1.1 percent at $74.62 a barrel.