China Stock Market Likely Rangebound On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, improving almost 50 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,060-point plateau and it's expected to see little movement on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and fairly flat, with many of the regional bourses due for profit taking after big recent gains. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the property stocks and insurance companies were offset by weakness from the banks and resource stocks.

For the day, the index advanced 27.61 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 3,058.41 after trading between 3,037.69 and 3,058.99. The Shenzhen Composite Index spiked 39,97 points or 2,13 percent to end at 1,914.97.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.63 percent, while Bank of China retreated 1.29 percent, China Construction Bank declined 1.59 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.48 percent, Bank of Communications sank 0.88 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.29 percent, Jiangxi Copper climbed 1.05 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) tumbled 2.65 percent, Yankuang Energy tanked 2.75 percent, PetroChina plunged 3.27 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) stumbled 2.54 percent, Huaneng Power lost 0.65 percent, China Shenhua Energy surrendered 2.93 percent, Gemdale surged 4.98 percent, Poly Developments jumped 2.96 percent and China Vanke skyrocketed 6.21 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests very mild upside as the major averages opened higher on Monday, slipped into the red late but managed to finish just above the unchanged line by the close.

The Dow rose 34.54 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 34,095.86, while the NASDAQ gained 40.50 points or 0.30 percent to close at 13,518.78 and the S&P 500 roe 7.64 points or 0.18 percent to end at 4,365.98.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders continued to express optimism about the outlook for interest rates. The Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement last Wednesday combined with softer than expected jobs data last Friday has led to optimism that the central bank is done raising interest rates.

Treasuries showed a significant pullback during trading on Monday after moving sharply higher over the past few sessions. Bond prices came under pressure early in the session and saw further downside as the day progressed. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, jumped 10.4 basis points to 4.662 percent.

A late round of profit taking following recent gains sent markets briefly into the red before a mild recovery.

Oil futures settled higher on Monday after Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed that they will extend their voluntary production and supply cuts to the end of the year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $0.31 or 0.4 percent at $80.82 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will release October data for imports, exports and trade balance later today. Imports are expected to slip 5.4 percent on year after dropping 6.2 percent in September. Exports are called lower by an annual 3.1 percent after sinking 6.2 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus of pegged at $81.95 billion, up from $77.71 billion a month earlier.