China Shares May Open To The Upside On Monday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has ticked lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping almost 15 points or 0.4 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,370-point plateau although it may inch higher on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are predicted to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished barely lower on Friday following losses from the properties and resource stocks, while the financials came in mixed.

For the day, the index eased 1.96 points or 0.06 percent to finish at 3,368.07 after trading between 3,362.82 and 3,390.62. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 9.04 points or 0.44 percent to end at 2,041.89.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.62 percent, while Bank of China added 0.57 percent, China Merchants Bank dipped 0.29 percent, China Life Insurance shed 0.81 percent, Jiangxi Copper slumped 1.34 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) declined 1.49 percent, Yankuang Energy surrendered 2.45 percent, PetroChina dropped 0.95 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) retreated 1.24 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 1.99 percent, China Shenhua Energy tanked 2.98 percent, Gemdale sank 0.85 percent, Poly Developments shed 0.53 percent, China Vanke skidded 1.14 percent and Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Friday but quickly bounced up into the green and stayed that way for the balance of the session.

The Dow rallied 498.06 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 42,840.26, while the NASDAQ jumped 199.80 points or 1.03 percent to close at 19,572.60 and the S&P 500 gained 63.77 points or 1.09 percent to end at 5,930.85.

For the week, the Dow plunged 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 tumbled 2.0 percent and the NASDAQ slumped 1.8 percent.

The rally on Wall Street followed the release of the Commerce Department's report on personal consumption expenditures (PCE), which came in slower than expected.

As that is the Federal Reserve's preferred reading on consumer price inflation, the slower than expected growth inspired traders to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the mid-week sell-off.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday as the dollar came off two-year highs after soft PCE readings eased concerns about the outlook for interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures perked $0.08 or about 0.1 percent to $69.46 a barrel. Oil futures shed 2.5 percent in the week.