China Stock Market May Head South Again On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day slide in which it had dipped almost 15 points or 0.5 percent. The SCI now sits just beneath the 3,380-point plateau although it's expected to turn lower again.

The global forecast for the Asian markets remains negative on concerns over tariff and on the health of the world's economy. The European and U.S. markets were down again and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the financial shares and oil companies were offset by weakness from the property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index gained 13.67 points or 0.41 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,379.83 after moving as low as 3,334.83. The Shenzhen Composite Index improved 7.15 points or 0.34 percent to end at 2,087.72.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China increased 0.59 percent, while Bank of China and Yankuang Energy both rose 0.37 percent, China Construction Bank gained 0.47 percent, China Merchants Bank climbed 1.02 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.59 percent, China Life Insurance eased 0.19 percent, Jiangxi Copper slid 0.37 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) dropped 0.90 percent, PetroChina added 0.52 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) perked 0.18 percent, Huaneng Power improved 0.76 percent, China Shenhua Energy advanced 0.91 percent, Gemdale fell 0.42 percent, Poly Developments lost 0.69 percent and China Vanke shed 0.67 percent.

The lead from Wall Street remains soft as the major averages opened mixed but trended generally lower throughout the day before ending in the red.

The Dow tumbled 478.23 points or 1.14 percent to finish at 41,433.48, while the NASDAQ shed 32.23 points or 0.18 percent to close at 17,436.10 and the S&P 500 sank 42.49 points or 0.76 percent to end at 5,572.07.

Stocks tumbled as trade war concerns have escalated with the U.S. and Canada slapping tariffs on each other's goods.

Markets now await U.S. reports on consumer and producer price inflation, as well as readings on consumer sentiment and inflation expectations this week for further direction.

Oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday, bouncing back fairly well on a weaker dollar after dropping to six-month lows in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April added $0.22 or 0.3 percent at $66.25 a barrel.