China Stock Market Has Positive Lead

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Tuesday ended the three-day slide in which it had dropped more than 35 points or 1.1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,230-point plateau and it's predicted to open higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic ahead of the FOMC rate decision later today. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure split the difference.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index rallied 67.36 points or 2.13 percent to finish at 3,231.52 after trading between 3,201.46 and 3,231.75. The Shenzhen Composite Index spiked 43.85 points or 2.19 percent to end at 2,048.15.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.09 percent, while Bank of China spiked 2.70 percent, China Construction Bank jumped 1.70 percent, China Merchants Bank surged 5.79 percent, Bank of Communications collected 1.45 percent, China Life Insurance skyrocketed 6.01 percent, Jiangxi Copper accelerated 2.38 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) soared 5.73 percent, Yankuang Energy strengthened 1.53 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.88 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 1.57 percent, Huaneng Power plummeted 6.80 percent, China Shenhua Energy rallied 2.36 percent, Gemdale skyrocketed 9.94 percent, Poly Developments surged 8.72 percent, China Vanke soared 8.12 percent and China Fortune Land spiked 4.27 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened flat on Tuesday but moved generally higher as the day progressed and ended in the green.

The Dow added 26.83 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 35,438.07, while the NASDAQ climbed 85.69 points or 0.61 percent to close at 14,144.56 and the S&P 500 rose 12.82 points or 0.28 percent to end at 4,567.46.

The higher close on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to the latest batch of earnings news from big-name companies such as 3M (MMM), chemical giant Dow Inc. (DOW) and General Electric (GE).

Traders also remain optimistic about the Federal Reserve wrapping up its recent series of interest rate hikes ahead of today's monetary policy decision. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis points, but traders are hopeful the rate hike will be the last following recent encouraging inflation data.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing U.S. consumer confidence improved more than expected in July.

Crude oil futures settled notably higher Tuesday on optimism about increased Chinese demand after policymakers pledged support to shore up growth in the world's second largest economy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September gained $0.89 or 1.1 percent at $79.63 a barrel, the highest settlement since mid-April.