China Shares May Extend Monday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Monday snapped the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 25 points or 0.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,860-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, with support from technology shares likely offset by weakness from the oil companies. The European and U.S. markets saw mild upside and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the property and resource stocks were capped by weakness from the financial shares.

For the day, the index advanced 34.43 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 3,862.53 after trading between 3,809.54 and 3,881.00. The Shenzhen Composite Index rallied 37.64 points or 1.52 percent to end at 2,508.37.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slumped 1.08 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.76 percent, China Merchants Bank and Bank of Communications both fell 0.29 percent, China Life Insurance soared 3.17 percent, Jiangxi Copper spiked 3.07 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surged 6.96 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1.25 percent, PetroChina was up 0.12 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) sank 0.75 percent, Huaneng Power dipped 0.14 percent, China Shenhua Energy skidded 1.06 percent, Gemdale rallied 1.49 percent, China Vanke perked 0.15 percent and Poly Developments and Agricultural Bank of China were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mildly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but eventually managed to finish with modest gains.

The Dow added 68.78 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 46,316.07, while the NASDAQ gained 107.09 points or 0.48 percent to end at 22,591.15 and the S&P 500 rose 17.51 points or 0.26 percent to close at 6,661.21 percent.

The upswing on Wall Street reflected strength among technology stocks, with AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) jumping 2.1 percent and video game maker Electronic Arts (EA) surging 4.5 percent.

However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves amid concerns about a potential U.S. government shutdown ahead of a deadline later today.

Traders were also looking ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday, which could impact the outlook for interest rates. But the data could be delayed if the government shuts down.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Monday in the wake of oversupply concerns thanks to OPEC's plans for increasing output. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $2.50 or 3.80 percent at $63.22 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will see September results for the manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs from the National Bureau of Statistics and from Caixin later this morning. The NBS manufacturing index is expected to show a score of49.6, up from 49.4 in August, while the non-manufacturing index is expected to hold steady at 50.3. The Caixin manufacturing index is expected to slip to 50.2 from 50.5, while the services PMI is expected to ease to 52.3 from 53.0.