Renewed Support Anticipated For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 90 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,335-point plateau although it's expected to rebound on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on solid economic and earnings news. The European and U.S. markets were firmly higher and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the insurance, oil and resource stocks were mitigated by support from the financials and properties.

For the day, the index lost 15.96 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 3,334.50 after trading between 3,321.19 and 3,364.14.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.81 percent, while Bank of China surged 3.55 percent, China Construction Bank spiked 1.98 percent, China Merchants Bank jumped 1.64 percent, Bank of Communications rallied 1.86 percent, China Life Insurance plunged 3.01 percent, Jiangxi Copper tanked 2.47 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) retreated 1.40 percent, Yankuang Energy fell 0.35 percent, PetroChina lost 0.50 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) declined 1.79 percent, Huaneng Power advanced 0.90 percent, China Shenhua Energy climbed 1.08 percent, Gemdale soared 6.06 percent, Poly Developments accelerated 4.01 percent, China Vanke strengthened 3.05 percent, China Fortune Land skyrocketed 10.13 percent and Beijing Capital Development gained 2.50 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained solidly in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow surged 546.68 points or 1.65 percent to finish at 33,674.38, while the NASDAQ rallied 269.01 points or 2.25 percent to end at 12,235.41 and the S&P 500 jumped 75.03 points or 1.85 percent to close at 4,136.25. For the week, the NASDAQ rose 0.1 percent, the S&P slid 0.8 percent and the Dow fell 1.2 percent.

The rally on Wall Street partly reflected bargain hunting, as traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness.

Regional banks helped lead the recovery after ongoing concerns about turmoil in the sector weighed on the markets in recent sessions, while strong quarterly results from tech giant Apple (AAPL) fueled gains on the NASDAQ.

Traders also reacted to the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for April, which showed that job growth far exceeded estimates and the unemployment rate ticked lower.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Friday on easing recession concerns in some of the world's major economies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $2.78 or 4.1 percent at $71.34 a barrel but was down more than 7 percent for the week.