China Stock Market May Find Support On Monday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, slumping more than 60 points or 2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,940-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed amid a lack of catalysts, with optimism over the outlook for interest rates preventing any heavy selling. The European and U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index sank 16.43 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 2,942.56 after trading between 2,940.03 and 2,976.31. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 7.07 points or 0.38 percent to end at 1,828.20.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.84 percent, while Bank of China tumbled 1.76 percent, China Construction Bank sank 0.93 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.74 percent, Bank of Communications retreated 1.55 percent, China Life Insurance slid 0.29 percent, Jiangxi Copper climbed 1.12 percent, Yankuang Energy lost 0.60 percent, PetroChina fell 0.30 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.76 percent, Huaneng Power plunged 2.45 percent, China Shenhua Energy skidded 0.91 percent, Poly Developments spiked 2/52 percent, China Vanke rallied 1.33 percent and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) and Gemdale were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and finished the same way, little changed.

The Dow added 56.76 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 37,305.16, while the NASDAQ gained 52.32 points or 0.35 percent to close at 14,813.92 and the S&P 500 eased 0.36 points or 0.01 percent to end at 4,719.19.

The major averages all closed higher for the seventh consecutive week. The Dow and the NASDAQ both surged by 2.9 percent, while the S&P 500 jumped by 2.5 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a breather following the recent upward move by the markets, although optimism about the outlook for interest rates continued to support the markets.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve released a report showing a modest rebound in U.S. industrial production in November.

Oil futures posted their first weekly gain in two months despite settling on a slightly weak note on Friday. An upward revision in oil demand forecast by the International Energy Agency and a weak dollar pushed up crude oil prices over the past few sessions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January eased $0.15 at $71.43 a barrel on Friday but added 0.2% for the week.