China Stock Market May End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, sinking almost 30 points or 1 percent in that span. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,040-point plateau although it may find support on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on bargain hunting, especially among the technology tocks that were battered last week. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit. The SCI finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and oil companies. For the day, the index shed 20.67 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 3,044.60 after trading between 3,042.54 and 3,078.42. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 8.30 points or 0.49 percent to end at 1,678.26. Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.26 percent, while Bank of China declined 1.27 percent, China Construction Bank shed 0.68 percent, China Merchants Bank sank 0.83 percent, Bank of Communications dropped 0.87 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.32 percent, Jiangxi Copper tanked 3.27 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) perked 0.14 percent, Yankuang Energy plunged 4.71 percent, PetroChina tumbled 2.66 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) surrendered 2.55 percent, Huaneng Power lost 0.73 percent, China Shenhua Energy plummeted 3.80 percent, Gemdale fell 0.31 percent, Poly Developments eased 0.12 percent and China Vanke was down 0.15 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Monday and remained well in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow rallied 253.58 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 38,239.98, while the NASDAQ jumped 169.30 points or 1.11 percent to close at 15,451.31 and the S&P 500 gained 43.37 points or 0.87 percent to end at 5,010.60.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street came on easing fears of a wider Middle East conflict after Iran and Israel completed 'measured' counterattacks that were calibrated to avoid any casualties.

Investors scooped up bargains ahead of the release of a slew of U.S. economic data including reports on new home sales, durable goods orders and personal income and spending.

Earnings season also starts to pick up steam this week, with Tesla (TSLA), Boeing (BA), IBM (IBM), Caterpillar (CAT), Honeywell (HON), Alphabet (GOOGL), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) among the companies due to report their quarterly results.

Oil prices drifted lower on Monday on concerns about the outlook for global oil demand, while recent data showing a sharp jump in U.S. crude inventories also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May fell $0.29 or 0.34 percent at $82.85 a barrel.