Losing Streak May Continue For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping almost 60 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,970-point plateau and it may take further damage again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on valuation concerns, especially among technology shares. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Monday as losses from the financial shares and resource stocks were mitigated by support from the oil companies and a mixed picture from the property sector.

For the day, the index shed 18.46 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 3,972.03 after trading between 3,958.95 and 3,992.40. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.28 points or 0.01 percent to end at 2,511.84.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.97 percent, while Bank of China sank 0.86 percent, Agricultural Bank of China stumbled 2.12 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.39 percent, Bank of Communications contracted 1.73 percent, China Life Insurance declined 1.63 percent, Jiangxi Copper plunged 3.35 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plummeted 4.29 percent, Yankuang Energy rallied 1.37 percent, PetroChina added 0.51 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.23 percent, Huaneng Power lost 0.63 percent, China Shenhua Energy improved 0.74 percent, Gemdale rose 0.25 percent, China Vanke dipped 0.16 percent and Poly Developments was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages spent the first half of Monday's trade relatively flat before tumbling in the afternoon, finishing near daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 557.24 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 46,590.24, while the NASDAQ dropped 192.51 points or 0.84 percent to close at 22,708.07 and the S&P 500 sank 61.70 points or 0.92 percent to end at 6,672.41.

The weakness on Wall Street came as valuation concerns resurfaced ahead of the release of quarterly results from Nvidia (NVDA) after the markets close on Wednesday.

Traders were also looking ahead to the release of U.S. economic data that was delayed due to the government shutdown. While the reports will be backward looking, the data could still impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting in December.

Crude oil prices edged lower on Tuesday as long-term oversupply concerns of a supply-demand mismatch continue to linger. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery dipped $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $60.01 per barrel.