China Investors May Lock In Gains On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in five straight sessions, accelerating more than 220 points or 8 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 2,920-point plateau although it's overdue for profit taking on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continued profit taking and pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks.

For the day, the index added 12.19 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 2,922.73 after trading between 2,887.47 and 2,927.31. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 8.29 points or 0.52 percent to end at 1,612.46.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rallied 1.52 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.44 percent, China Construction Bank advanced 0.99 percent, China Merchants Bank sank 0.70 percent, Bank of Communications jumped 1.60 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.26 percent, Jiangxi Copper perked 0.16 percent, Yankuang Energy surged 4/70 percent, PetroChina eased 0.12 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) lost 0.48 percent, Huaneng Power shed 0.44 percent, China Shenhua Energy dipped 0.13 percent, Gemdale spiked 2.23 percent, Poly Developments added 0.51 percent, China Vanke gained 0.61 percent and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely remained that way, finishing solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 64.19 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 38,563.80, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.87 points or 0.92 percent to end at 15,630.78 and the S&P 500 sank 30.06 points or 0.60 percent to close at 4,975.51.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing anxiety about the outlook for interest rates following last week's hotter-than-expectation inflation data.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point in March, while the chances of a quarter point rate cut in early May have fallen to 33.8 percent.

Meanwhile, a strong gain by Walmart (WMT) helped limit the downside for the Dow, with the retail giant surging by 3.2 percent after reporting fourth quarter results that exceeded estimates and announcing a deal to acquire TV maker Vizio (VZIO) for $2.3 billion.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Tuesday, reflecting ongoing concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery slumped $1.01 to $78.18 a barrel, while the more actively traded crude for April delivery tumbled $1.42 to $77.04 a barrel.