China Stock Market Predicted To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished higher in consecutive trading days, improving almost 50 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just shy of the 3,100-point plateau although it's looking at a soft start on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to 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 advanced 30.01 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 3,095.57 after trading between 3,074.31 and 3,098.08.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 0.94 percent, while Bank of China and Bank of Communications both collected 1.29 percent, China Construction Bank and China Shenhua Energy both strengthened 1.45 percent, China Merchants Bank rallied 2.00 percent, China Life Insurance surged 3.68 percent, Jiangxi Copper soared 3.46 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) spiked 2.90 percent, Yankuang Energy added 0.66 percent, PetroChina gained 0.60 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 1.39 percent, Huaneng Power dipped 0.14 percent, Gemdale rose 0.29 percent, Poly Developments increased 0.86 percent and China Vanke was up 0.76 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, with only the Dow managing to break barely into positive territory.

The Dow rose 37.63 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 33,241.56, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.64 points or 1.38 percent to end at 10,353.23 and the S&P 500 sank 15.57 points or 0.40 percent to close at 3,829.25.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected lingering concerns about the economic outlook following recent indications the Federal Reserve plans to continuing raising interest rates.

The markets got a lift when treasuries moved sharply lower, extending the downward trend seen over the past several sessions.

Bond prices came under pressure in early trading and saw further downside as the day progressed. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, jumped 10.9 basis points to 3.860 percent.

Crude oil prices pared gains and settled roughly flat on Tuesday after refineries in the Gulf Coast restarted after a temporary closure. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled flat at $79.53 a barrel.