Soft Start Seen For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 35 points or 1.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just shy of the 3,085-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the financials and oil companies were capped by weakness from the property sector.

For the day, the index rose 9.68 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 3,083.50 after trading between 3,064.89 and 3,084.07. The Shenzhen Composite Index eased 0.12 points or 0.01 percent to end at 1,884.20.

Among the actives, Bank of China fell 0.25 percent, while China Construction Bank collected 0.45 percent, China Merchants Bank added 0.65 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 0.90 percent, Jiangxi Copper lost 0.37 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) slid 0.33 percent, Yankuang Energy rose 0.25 percent, PetroChina jumped 1.67 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) advanced 0.85 percent, Huaneng Power gained 0.53 percent, China Shenhua Energy gathered 0.51 percent, Gemdale plummeted 9.95 percent, Poly Developments shed 0.66 percent, China Vanke tumbled 1.88 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages open sharply lower on Tuesday but fought back into the green before finally settling mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 13.11 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 33,997,65, while the NASDAQ shed 34.24 points or 0.25 percent to close at 13,533.75 and the S&P 500 eased 0.43 points or 0.01 percent to end at 4,373.20.

The early weakness on Wall Street came after data showed bigger than expected increases in retail sales and industrial production last month, raising concerns the Federal Reserve may keep interest rates higher for longer or even announce a rate hike this year.

Higher bond yields and geopolitical concerns in the Middle East also kept investors wary.

Crude oil futures settled flat on Tuesday after a lackluster session as investors continued to track the developments on the geopolitical front and weighed the outlook for global demand and supply. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended at $86.66 a barrel, unchanged from the previous close.

Closer to home, China is scheduled to release a batch of data later today, including Q3 figures for gross domestic product, as well as September numbers for industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment and unemployment.

GDP is expected to add 1.0 percent on quarter and 4.4 percent on year after rising 0.8 percent on quarter and 6.3 percent on year in the three months prior.

Industrial production is expected to gain 4.3 percent on year, slowing from 4.5 percent in August. Retail sales are seen higher by an annual 4.5 percent, easing from 4.6 percent in the previous month. FAI is called steady at 3.2 percent and the jobless rate is also seen unchanged, at 5.2 percent.