China Shares May Open Under Water On Friday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 20 points or 0.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 4,030-point plateau although it may see renewed consolidation on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on continued uncertainty regarding the end of the U.S. government shutdown. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the properties and resource stocks, weakness from the oil companies and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index gained 29.36 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 4,029.50 after trading between 3,994.77 and 4,030.40. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 38.30 points or 1.53 percent to end at 2,546.14.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.24 percent, while Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China both fell 0.35 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.65 percent, China Life Insurance added 0.38 percent, Jiangxi Copper rallied 3.72 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) soared 4.17 percent, Yankuang Energy gained 0.33 percent, PetroChina dipped 0.20 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.53 percent, Huaneng Power dropped 0.98 percent, China Shenhua Energy perked 0.05 percent, Gemdale improved 0.76 percent, Poly Developments was up 0.14 percent, China Vanke increased 0.32 percent and Bank of Communications was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is rough as the major averages opened slightly lower on Thursday but accelerated deeper into the red as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow plunged 779.86 points or 1.62 percent to finish at 47,474.96, while the NASDAQ tanked 536.10 points or 2.29 percent to end at 22,870.36 and the S&P 500 sank 114.20 points or 1.67 percent to close at 6,736.72.

The Dow pulled back well off the record closing high set on Wednesday amid a steep drop by shares of Disney (DIS), which came under pressure after the company reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates but weaker than expected revenues.

Valuation concerns also continued to weigh on tech stocks, with AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) moving sharply lower along with tech heavyweights like Broadcom (AVGO) and Alphabet (GOOGL).

The weakness on Wall Street may also have reflected uncertainty whether key U.S. economic will be released following the end of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Crude oil edged higher on Thursday as the end of the U.S. government shutdown has renewed confidence in consumption and energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.22 or 0.38 percent at $58.71 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will on Friday release a batch of data this morning, including October figures for fixed asset investment, industrial production, retail sales, house prices and unemployment.

FAI is expected to fall 0.9 percent on year after slipping 0.5 percent September. Production is tipped to climb an annual 5.5 percent, easing from 6.5 percent in the previous month. Sales are seen higher by 2.7 percent, down from 3.0 percent a month earlier. House prices fell 2.2 percent on year in September and the jobless rate was 5.2 percent.