China Stock Market May Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, gathering almost 100 points or 3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,115-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to slightly higher ahead of Wednesday's FOMC policy announcement. The European markets were soft and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly higher following large gains from the property sector, while the resource companies were soft and the financials were mixed.

For the day, the index improved 24.41 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 3,113.04 after trading between 3,080.59 and 3,119.69. The Shenzhen Composite Index spiked 39.95 points or 2.31 percent to end at 1,768.44.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.37 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.22 percent, China Construction Bank sank 0.70 percent, China Merchants Bank climbed 1.16 percent, Bank of Communications shed 0.73 percent, China Life Insurance soared 4.26 percent, Jiangxi Copper tanked 2.07 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) skidded 1.20 percent, Yankuang Energy tumbled 1.81 percent, PetroChina plummeted 4.31 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) plunged 4.28 percent, Huaneng Power surrendered 2.12 percent, China Shenhua Energy retreated 1.39 percent, Gemdale and China Vanke both skyrocketed by the 10 percent daily limit and Poly Developments surged 7.41 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened higher on Monday and stayed mostly in the green, ending slightly higher.

The Dow jumped 146.43 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 38,386.09, while the NASDAQ advanced 55.18 points or 0.35 percent to close at 15,983.08 and the S&P 500 added 16.21 points or 0.32 percent to end at 5,116.17.

The modestly higher close on Wall Street came as stocks continue to benefit from the upward momentum seen last week, which came amid a positive reaction to upbeat tech earnings.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference may shed additional light on the outlook for rates.

Oil futures settled lower on Monday amid worries about growth and outlook for oil demand and the rising possibility of the Federal Reserve delaying interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down by $1.22 or 1.45 percent at $82.63 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will see April results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite indexes from the National Bureau of Statistics later this morning; in March, their scores were 50.8, 53.0 and 52.7, respectively.