Higher Open Anticipated For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the long break for the Lunar New Year, the China stock market had moved higher in three straight sessions, surging almost 170 points or 5.6 percent in that span. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 2,865-point plateau and it's expected to return from break to the upside on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky to lower, weighed by pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Feb. 8 following huge gains from the properties and mixed performances from the financials, resource stocks and energy companies.

For the day, the index rallied 36.21 points or 1.28 percent to finish at 2,865.90 after trading between 2,827.90 and 2,867.47. The Shenzhen Composite Index soared 48.42 points or 3.17 percent to end at 1,577.33.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.34 percent, while Bank of China dropped 0.92 percent, China Construction Bank skidded 1.16 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.29 percent, Bank of Communications slumped 1.15 percent, Industrial Bank gained 0.50 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.02 percent, Jiangxi Copper fell 0.27 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) shed 0.52 percent, Yankuang Energy tumbled 1.76 percent, PetroChina slid 0.36 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) lost 0.50 percent, Huaneng Power soared 2.58 percent, China Shenhua Energy declined 1.35 percent, Gemdale skyrocketed 7.45 percent, Poly Developments accelerated 5.17 percent and China Vanke surged 5/67 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and spent most of the session in the red before finishing under water.

The Dow dropped 145.11 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 38,627.99, while the NASDAQ tumbled 130.55 points or 0.82 percent to close at 15,775.65 and the S&P 500 sank 24.16 points or 0.48 percent to end at 5,005.57.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of a Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices in January.

Following last week's hotter-than expected consumer price inflation figures, the data added to concerns the Federal Reserve will postpone cutting interest rates longer than investors had hoped.

However, the negative sentiment was partly offset by a separate report from the University of Michigan showing an uptick in consumer sentiment in February.

Oil price climbed higher on Friday, lifting the most active WTI Crude futures to a 11-week high, on concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $1.16 at $79.19 a barrel.