China Bourse May Add To Its Winnings On Monday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Friday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 55 points or 1.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,900-point plateau and it may see additional support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index added 27.01 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 3,902.81 after trading between 3,863.31 and 3,907.78. The Shenzhen Composite Index

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 0.75 percent, while Bank of China slumped 1.19 percent, Agricultural Bank of China skidded 1.01 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.53 percent, Bank of Communications fell 0.27 percent, China Life Insurance soared 4.61 percent, Jiangxi Copper surged 5.38 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 4.68 percent, Yankuang Energy shed 0.36 percent, PetroChina declined 1.10 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dipped 0.17 percent, Huaneng Power was down 0.50 percent, China Shenhua Energy slipped 0.53 percent, Gemdale advanced 0.92 percent, Poly Developments improved 0.77 percent and China Vanke lost 0.40 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and bounced up and down all day but always remained in the green.

The Dow added 104.05 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 47,954.99, while the NASDAQ gained 72.99 points or 0.31 percent to close at 23,578.13 and the S&P 500 rose 13.28 points or 0.19 percent to end at 6,870.40.

For the week, the NASDAQ added 0.9 percent, the Dow climbed 0.5 percent and the S&P rose 0.3 percent.

The modest strength on Wall Street followed the release of closely watched consumer price inflation data that was in line with estimates, reinforcing recent optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating an 87.2 percent chance the Fed will lower interest rates by another quarter point this week.

Crude oil prices edged higher on Friday on persistent geopolitical tension due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S.-Venezuela standoff. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.35 or 0.59 percent at $60.02 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will release November numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In October, imports were up 1.0 percent and exports slipped an annual 1.1 percent for a trade surplus of $90.07 billion.