China Stock Market May Take Further Damage On Friday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, slumping almost 30 points or 1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,040-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and properties, while the resource stocks provided support.

For the day, the index eased 5.60 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 3,038.23 after trading between 3,020.64 and 3,060.00. The Shenzhen Composite Index fell 10.47 points or 0.59 percent to end at 1,758.09.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.39 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.23 percent, China Merchants Bank dropped 0.86 percent, Bank of Communications eased 0.16 percent, China Life Insurance shed 0.38 percent, Jiangxi Copper soared 4.49 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) added 0.47 percent, Yankuang Energy dipped 0.08 percent, PetroChina climbed 1.15 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) strengthened 1.14 percent, Huaneng Power advanced 0.99 percent, China Shenhua Energy improved 0.94 percent, Gemdale slid 0.24 percent, Poly Developments rallied 1.03 percent, China Vanke perked 0.21 percent and China Construction Bank was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly headed south and stayed modestly lower for the rest of the day.

The Dow dropped 137.66 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 28,905.66, while the NASDAQ sank 49.24 points or 0.30 percent to close at 16,128.53 and the S&P 500 fell 14.83 points or 0.29 percent to end at 5,150.48.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the Federal Reserve further postponing its first interest rate cut following the release of hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data for February.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report showing retail sales rebounded in February, although the increase fell short of estimates.

Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday, extending gains from the previous day as the International Energy Agency (IEA) upwardly raised its global demand growth forecast. West Texas International Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.54 or 1.9 percent at $81.26 a barrel.