China Stock Market May Open Under Pressure On Friday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had improved almost 60 points or 2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,120-point plateau and it's likely to extend its losses on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with tech shares likely to weigh. The European and U.S. markets were mixed but little changed and the Asian markets are likely to open in similar fashion on Friday.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the resource stocks and properties, while the financials came in mixed.

For the day, the index dropped 35.72 points or 1.13 percent to finish at 3,122.35 after trading between 3,120.82 and 3,152.27. The Shenzhen Composite Index tumbled 34.73 points or 1.76 percent to end at 1,936.86.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.22 percent, while China Merchants Bank shed 0.66 percent, Bank of Communications rose 0.18 percent, China Life Insurance skidded 1.10 percent, Jiangxi Copper dropped 0.99 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) slumped 1.03 percent, Yankuang Energy perked 0.15 percent, PetroChina jumped 1.98 percent, Huaneng Power declined 1.25 percent, China Shenhua Energy added 0.37 percent, Gemdale plunged 2.54 percent, Poly Developments fell 0.35 percent, China Vanke surrendered 1.20 percent and Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened mixed and finished little changed in similar fashion.

The Dow rose 57.54 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 34,500.73, while the NASDAQ sank 123.64 points or 0.89 percent to end at 13,748.83 and the S&P 500 fell 14.34 points or 0.32 percent to close at 4,451.14.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates after the Labor Department reported an unexpected drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

The Fed is still widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its next meeting later this month, but CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates a 43.4 percent chance of another rate hike in November.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was weighed by weakness from Apple (AAPL) after reports said China plans to expand a ban on the use of iPhones in sensitive departments to government-backed agencies and state companies.

Crude oil prices fell on Thursday, despite a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. Profit taking after recent strong gains was largely responsible as West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended lower by $0.67 or 0.9 percent at $86.87 a barrel.