Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, collecting almost 60 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,860-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index added 14.33 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 3,857.93 after trading between 3,839.21 and 3,867.61. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 12.36 points or 0.51 percent to end at 2,443.68/

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.68 percent, while Bank of China dipped 0.18 percent, China Merchants Bank slipped 0.21 percent, Bank of Communications tumbled 1.89 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 1.47 percent, Jiangxi Copper surged 5.98 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) sank 0.76 percent, Yankuang Energy fell 0.31 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.93 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dropped 0.87 percent, Huaneng Power added 0.68 percent, China Shenhua Energy skidded 1.13 percent, China Vanke rose 0.30 percent and Poly Developments, Agricultural Bank of China and Gemdale were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water and stayed that way throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 92.02 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 45,544.88, while the NASDAQ tumbled 249.65 points or 1.15 percent to end at 21,455.55 and the S&P 500 sank 41.60 points or 0.64 percent to close at 6,420.26. For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent and the Dow and NASDAQ both dipped 0.2 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking, as some traders looked to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.

Meanwhile, traders seemingly shrugged off a typically closely watched Commerce Department report showing U.S. consumer prices increased in line with estimates in July.

While the data increased confidence the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, a September rate cut may already have been priced into the markets. CME Group's FedWatch is currently indicating an 87.1 percent chance that the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point at its next monetary policy meeting.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on concerns on overproduction concerns as OPEC recently agreed to increase crude production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.60 or 0.93 percent at $64.00 per barrel.