China Bourse: Support Expected At 3,300 Points

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked lower in three straight sessions, slumping more than 90 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,300-point plateau although it's due for support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside ahead of economic and earnings news coming the week. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher on Friday and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financials, properties and resource stocks.

For the day, the index tumbled 65.77 points or 1.95 percent to finish at the daily low of 3,301.26 after peaking at 3,367.61. The Shenzhen Composite Index plunged 51.84 points or 2.45 percent to end at 2,066.10.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.84 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.56 percent, China Construction Bank sank 0.79 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.40 percent, Bank of Communications lost 0.54 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 2.79 percent, Jiangxi Copper declined 1.42 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 3.21 percent, Yankuang Energy surrendered 2.09 percent, PetroChina fell 0.41 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) slumped 1.42 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 1.69 percent, China Shenhua Energy slid 0.75 percent, Gemdale weakened 1.41 percent, Poly Developments gained 0.70 percent, China Vanke skidded 0.84 percent and China Fortune Land plummeted 2.60 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday before finally finishing barely higher.

The Dow added 22.36 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 33,808.96, while the NASDAQ perked 12.86 points or 0.11 percent to close at 12,072.46 and the S&P 500 rose 3.73 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,133.52.

For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent, the Dow slipped 0.2 percent and the NASDAQ dipped by 0.4 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key economic reports and corporate earnings numbers due be released this week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, buoyed by fairly strong data on private sector activity in the U.K. and eurozone. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.50 or 0.7 percent at $77.87 a barrel. WTI lost 5.5 percent last week.