Steady Start Eyed For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Wednesday snapped the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 50 points or 1.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,040-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday as gains from the oil and other resource stocks were offset by weakness from the financial shares and properties.

For the day, the index added 22.84 points or 0.76 percent to finish at 3,044.82 after trading between 3,019.12 and 3,045.64. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 19.78 points or 1.18 percent to end at 1,694.82.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.55 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.64 percent, China Construction Bank dropped 0.96 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.24 percent, Bank of Communications eased 0.14 percent, China Life Insurance strengthened 1.33 percent, Jiangxi Copper spiked 2.64 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 2.76 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1.31 percent, PetroChina improved 0.77 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 1.09 percent, Huaneng Power soared 4.40 percent, China Shenhua Energy fell 0.25 percent, Gemdale slid 0.31 percent, Poly Developments sank 0.50 percent and China Vanke lost 0.46 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and flat and basically ended the same way.

The Dow shed 42.77 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 38,460.92, while the NASDAQ rose 16.11 points or 0.10 percent to close at 15,712.75 and the S&P 500 perked 1.08 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,071.63.

A positive reaction to the latest corporate earnings news limited any downside on Wall Street, thanks to the likes of Tesla (TSLA), Texas Instruments (TXN), Visa (V) and Mattel (MAT).

Buying interest waned soon thereafter, however, with traders still worried about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will look for clues about the possibility of future rate cuts.

Oil prices dropped on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand and on easing tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down by $0.55 at $82.81 a barrel.