China Stock Market May Halt Its Slide On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked lower in consecutive trading days, surrendering more than 30 points or 1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,210-point plateau although it's likely to stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology shares expected to fuel the rally. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index sank 29.00 points or 0.89 percent to finish at 3,213.62 after trading between 3,203.38 and 3,235.50. The Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 19.27 points or 0.99 percent to end at 1,920.43.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.68 percent, while Bank of China tumbled 1.85 percent, China Construction Bank weakened 1.21 percent, China Merchants Bank declined 1.72 percent, Agricultural Bank of China surrendered 1.60 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 1.26 percent, Jiangxi Copper fell 0.43 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rose 0.26 percent, Yankuang Energy shed 0.61 percent, PetroChina tanked 2.60 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) skidded 1.15 percent, Huaneng Power lost 0.63 percent, China Shenhua Energy dipped 0.31 percent, Gemdale plunged 4.12 percent, Poly Developments plummeted 4.60 percent and China Vanke crashed 4.62 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher and spent all day in the green, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 130.92 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 44,156.73, while the NASDAQ surged 252.56 points or 1.28 percent to close at 20,009.34 and the S&P 500 added 37.13 points or 0.61 percent to end at 6,086.37.

The strength on Wall Street came as investors reacted positively to upbeat earnings updates and corporate news, and on continued optimism about rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was fueled by buoyant earnings and sales guidance by Netflix, as well as President Donald Trump's announcement of a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment plan involving Oracle, Open AI and Softbank.

Oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday, extending recent weakness on concerns about excess supply in the market due to the Trump administration's plan to maximize oil and gas production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March fell $0.39 or 0.5 percent at $75.44 a barrel, extending losses to a fifth straight session.