Soft Start Predicted For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market headed south again on Friday, one session after halting the three-day losing streak in which it had dropped almost 45 points or 1.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,190-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild consolidation following uninspired data from the United States. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties and resource stocks.

For the day, the index plunged 65.31 points or 2.01 percent to finish at the daily low of 3,189.25 after moving as high as 3,254.48. The Shenzhen Composite Index tumbled 39.12 points or 1.92 percent to end at 2,002.29.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tumbled 1.70 percent, while Bank of China declined 1.31 percent, China Construction Bank sank 0.84 percent, China Merchants Bank tanked 2.90 percent, Bank of Communications retreated 1.42 percent, China Life Insurance surrendered 2.90 percent, Jiangxi Copper plunged 2.21 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plummeted 2.69 percent, Yankuang Energy slumped 2.32 percent, PetroChina stumbled 1.64 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dropped 1.94 percent, Huaneng Power fell 0.45 percent, China Shenhua Energy weakened 2.17 percent, Gemdale lost 0.61 percent, Poly Developments was down 1.20 percent and China Vanke skidded 1.02 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up mixed as the major averages opened lower on Friday and wound up on opposite sides of the unchanged line after a day of volatility.

The Dow gained 105.30 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 35,281.40, while the NASDAQ slumped 93.15 points or 0.68 percent to close at 13,644.85 and the S&P 500 fell 4.78 points or 0.11 percent to end at 4,464.05. For the week, the Dow added 0.6 percent, the NASDAQ tumbled 1.9 percent and the S&P eased 0.3 percent.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came following the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices climbed slightly more than expected in July.

While the larger than increase by the headline index led to renewed interest rate concerns among some investors, analysts noted the more important index excluding food, energy, and trade services rose in line with estimates.

A separate report released by the University of Michigan showed a slight pullback in consumer sentiment in August.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Friday after a report from the International Energy Agency forecast strong demand for oil and tightening supplies in the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $0.37 at $83.19 a barrel.