China Shares May See Continued Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has ticked lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping almost 15 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just shy of the 3,315-point plateau and it may take further damage again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cloudy and fairly flat amidst a lack of catalysts. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Tuesday following losses from the energy stocks, gains from the properties and a mixed bag from the financial sector.

For the day, the index dipped 1.79 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 3,313.57 after trading between 3,298.25 and 3,317.45. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 3.05 points or 0.14 percent to end at 2,139.48.

Among the actives, Bank of China advanced 0.87 percent, while China Construction Bank rose 0.33 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.49 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.39 percent, China Life Insurance declined 1.62 percent, Jiangxi Copper soared 2.53 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) strengthened 1.52 percent, Yankuang Energy stumbled 1.34 percent, PetroChina rallied 1.55 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.87 percent, Huaneng Power added 0.34 percent, China Shenhua Energy eased 0.11 percent, Gemdale spiked 1.70 percent, Poly Developments improved 0.73 percent, China Vanke soared 2.17 percent, China Fortune Land gained 0.82 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be mixed as the Dow opened higher and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P 500 hugged the line all day and finished barely in the red.

The Dow added 98.27 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 33,684.79, while the NASDAQ shed 52.48 points or 0.43 percent to close at 12,031.88 and the S&P 500 eased 0.17 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,108.94.

A lack of major U.S. economic data kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of several key reports in the coming days.

The Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation in the month of March is due to be released later today and could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil prices surged Tuesday on optimism for additional Chinese economic stimulus after soft inflation data from China created room for its central bank to potentially ease its monetary policy. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery surged $1.79 to $81.53 a barrel.