China Stock Market May Test Support At 3,100 Points

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in back-to-back session, slipping almost 15 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,110-point plateau and it's likely to see continued consolidation on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on recession fears and concern over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Thursday as losses from the property stocks were mitigated by support from the oil companies and mixed performances from the resource stocks and financials.

For the day, the index shed 8.27 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 3,108.91 after trading between 3,092.82 and 3,125.68. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 12.47 points or 0.62 percent to end at 1,991.85.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.46 percent, while China Merchants Bank sank 0.70 percent, Bank of Communications and Jiangxi Copper both added 0.43 percent, China Life Insurance rose 0.30 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) skidded 1.11 percent, Yankuang Energy and PetroChina both rallied 2.01 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) spiked 3.29 percent, Huaneng Power declined 1.80 percent, China Shenhua Energy soared 2.60 percent, Gemdale plummeted 3.29 percent, Poly Developments retreated 1.74 percent, China Vanke fell 0.40 percent, China Fortune Land tanked 2.54 percent, Beijing Capital Development plunged 2.84 percent and Bank of China and China Construction Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be weak as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow shed 107.10 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 30,076.68, while the NASDAQ tumbled 153.39 points or 1.37 percent to end at 11,066.81 and the S&P 500 sank 31.94 points or 0.84 percent to close at 3,757.99.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected continued concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's third straight 75-basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday.

While the Fed's economic projections provided a clearer outlook for future rate hikes, traders are concerned about the impact the aggressive rate increases will have on the economy. Several other central banks around the world followed the Fed's lead, including the Bank of England, which raised interest rates by 50 basis points in a split decision.

In economic news, Labor Department reported an uptick in jobless claims last week, while the Conference Board said its leading economic index fell by 0.3 percent in August after sliding by a revised 0.5 percent in July.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Thursday on concerns about tight supplies amid geopolitical tensions in Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $0.55 or 0.7 percent at $83.49 a barrel.