Little Movement Seen For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Monday ended the two-day slide in which it had slipped more than 35 points or 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,365-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on the outlook for trade. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished barely higher on Monday as gains from the oil companies and property stocks were offset by weakness from the energy and financial shares.

For the day, the index perked 0.12 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 3,367.58 after trading between 3,356.65 and 3,373.60. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 6.63 points or 0.33 percent to end at 1,993.14.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slumped 0.56 percent, while Bank of China was down 0.36 percent, Agricultural Bank of China fell 0.54 percent, China Merchants Bank dropped 0.97 percent, Bank of Communications and Huaneng Power both eased 0.13 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.31 percent, Jiangxi Copper lost 0.55 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was up 0.15 percent, Yankuang Energy shed 0.47 percent, PetroChina added 0.37 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) gathered 0.35 percent, China Shenhua Energy sank 0.71 percent, Gemdale advanced 0.97 percent, Poly Developments perked 0.12 percent and China Vanke rose 0.44 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is slightly positive as the major averages spent most of Monday in the red before a late pushed them up and barely over the unchanged line.

The Dow climbed 137.33 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 42,792.07, while the NASDAQ rose 4.36 points or 0.02 percent to close at 19,215.46 and the S&P 500 perked 5.22 points or 0.09 percent to end at 5,963.60.

The initial weakness on Wall Street came in reaction to news that Moody's has downgraded the U.S. debt rating by a notch to Aa1 from Aaa.

Selling pressure waned over the course of the session, however, as traders seem to remain generally optimistic about the outlook for the markets.

On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report showing its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators slumped by more than expected in the month of April.

Crude oil prices saw mild upside on Monday after Goldman Sachs raised its outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose $0.17 of 0.27 percent to $62.66 per barrel.