Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in six straight sessions, accelerating more than 250 points or 9 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 2,950-point plateau although it's overdue for profit taking on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with a lack of direction over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SCI finished modestly higher gain on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index gained 28.23 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 2,950.96 after trading between 2,898.05 and 2,994.61. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 16.55 points or 1.03 percent to end at 1,629.01.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.12 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.66 percent, China Construction Bank increased 0.70 percent, China Merchants Bank surged 5.10 percent, Bank of Communications advanced 0.94 percent, China Life Insurance spiked 2.45 percent, Jiangxi Copper strengthened 1.01 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 2.03 percent, Yankuang Energy tanked 2.21 percent, PetroChina improved 0.81 percent, Huaneng Power retreated 1.56 percent, China Shenhua Energy lost 0.45 percent, Gemdale soared 4.13 percent, Poly Developments jumped 2.33 percent, China Vanke accelerated 3.13 percent and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and spent the vast majority of the session in the red, with only a late spurt lifting the Dow and S&P barely into the green.

The Dow added 48.44 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 38,612.24, while the NASDAQ lost 49.91 points or 0.32 percent to close at 15,580.87 and the S&P 500 rose 6.29 points or 0.13 percent to end at 4,981.80.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates weighed on the markets for much of the session, with the major averages falling to their worst levels after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed most officials remain wary of cutting interest rates "too quickly."

However, the Fed said a couple of participants pointed to downside risks to the economy associated with maintaining an overly restrictive stance for too long. The late-day recovery may have reflected expectations the Fed will still eventually cut interest rates.

Oil prices rebounded from early losses and settled higher on Wednesday as concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East outweighed weak outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $0.87 or 1.1 percent at $77.91 a barrel.