Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 50 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,310-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns about growth and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financials, properties and resource stocks.

For the day, the index picked up 32.74 points or 1.00 percent to finish at 3,312.35 after trading between 3,272.04 and 3,315.16.

Among the actives, Bank of China rose 0.31 percent, while China Merchants Bank spiked 2.52 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.41 percent, China Life Insurance surged 3.72 percent, Jiangxi Copper rallied 2.45 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) accelerated 2.71 percent, Yankuang Energy eased 0.14 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.96 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.93 percent, Huaneng Power soared 2.33 percent, China Shenhua Energy perked 0.21 percent, Gemdale strengthened 1.65 percent, Poly Developments was up 0.27 percent, China Vanke gathered 0.47 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Fortune Land Development and Beijing Capital Development were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly negative as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday in a volatile session, finally ending mixed.

The Dow rose 5.14 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 32,661.84, while the NASDAQ lost 76.06 points or 0.66 percent to close at 11,379.48 and the S&P 500 sank 18.76 points or 0.47 percent to end at 3,951.39.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of a report from the Institute for Supply Management on U.S. manufacturing activity in February. While the index improved to 47.7 from 47.4 in January, it remained in contraction.

The report also showed the prices index jumped to 51.3 in February from 44.5 in January, indicating a spike in raw materials prices after four months of decline - which added to recent concerns about inflation and the outlook for interest rates.

Treasury yields jumped following the release of the report, with the 10-year yield reaching its highest levels in over three months.

Crude oil futures settled at near two-week high on Wednesday, boosted by upbeat China factory data that raised the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April climbed $0.64 or 0.8 percent at $77.69 a barrel.