China Stock Market May Extend Thursday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, declining almost 40 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,200-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on growing concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Thursday as losses from the financials and resource stocks were tempered by support from the property sector.

For the day, the index shed 17.37 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 3,205.57 after trading between 3,199.72 and 3,229.48. The Shenzhen Composite Index slipped7.49 points or 0.37 percent to end at 2,044.03.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 1.04 percent, while Bank of China sank 0.77 percent, China Construction Bank dropped 0.96 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.36 percent, Bank of Communications shed 0.69 percent, China Life Insurance lost 0.48 percent, Jiangxi Copper declined 1.49 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) tanked 2.25 percent, Yankuang Energy climbed 1.01 percent, PetroChina was down 0.51 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) perked 0.15 percent, Huaneng Power fell 0.63 percent, China Shenhua Energy slumped 0.76 percent, Gemdale rose 0.28 percent, Poly Developments jumped 1.58 percent, China Fortune Land rallied 1.79 percent and China Vanke was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests consolidation as the major averages opened firmly lower on Thursday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow plunged 366.38 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 33,922.26, while the NASDAQ tumbled 112.61 points or 0.82 percent to close at 13,679.04 and the S&P 500 sank 35.23 points or 0.79 percent to end at 4,411.59.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came as a batch of largely upbeat U.S. economic data added to concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Wednesday's hawkish Federal Reserve minutes.

Before the start of trading, payroll processor ADP released a report showing much stronger than expected private sector job growth in June. While the surge in private sector employment paints a positive picture of the economy, it also may convince the Fed to resume raising interest rates.

The Institute for Supply Management also released a report showing the pace of growth in the service sector accelerated by much more than expected in June.

Oil futures settled roughly flat on Thursday with traders weighing the impact of higher interest rates on growth and energy demand against data showing a drop in crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August settled at $71.80 a barrel, up a penny from the previous close.