Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, collecting nearly 60 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite now sits just above the 3,460-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly higher again on Thursday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks, while the resource companies were mixed.

For the day, the index gained 29.01 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 3,461.50 after trading between 3,425.98 and 3,464.12. The Shenzhen Composite Index improved 21.98 points or 1.05 percent to end at 2,112.90.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China jumped 1.74 percent, while Bank of China improved 1.36 percent, China Construction Bank strengthened 1.22 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 1.31 percent, Agricultural Bank of China increased 1.21 percent, China Life Insurance spiked 2.06 percent. Jiangxi Copper advanced 0.83 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) lost 0.38 percent, Yankuang Energy fell 0.33 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) gathered 0.31 percent, Huaneng Power rose 0.28 percent, China Shenhua Energy shed 0.62 percent, Gemdale rallied 1.28 percent, Poly Developments gained 0.49 percent, China Vanke added 0.46 percent and PetroChina was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly headed south and remained in the red for the balance of day, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 234.44 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 43,914.12, while the NASDAQ sank 132.05 points or 0.66 percent to close at 19,769.84 and the S&P 500 lost 32.94 points or 0.54 percent to end at 6,051.25.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on the strong performance seen on Wednesday, when the tech-heavy NASDAQ closed above 20,000 for the first time ever.

Some negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of November.

While the Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower interest rates next week, the data has raised some concerns about how quickly the central bank will cut rates early next year.

Oil futures closed lower Thursday after three days of gains after the International Energy Agency's forecast that the oil market will see excess supply next year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.27 or 0.4 percent at $70.02 a barrel.