China Bourse Likely To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 40 points or 1.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,030-point plateau and its tipped to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft amid mixed cues for interest rates. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished slightly higher on Friday following gains from the properties and mixed performances from the financial and resource sectors.

For the day, the index perked 3.71 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 3,032.63 after trading between 3,011.58 and 3,037.90. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 6.17 points or 0.37 percent to end at 1,689.63.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.29 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.67 percent, China Construction Bank fell 0.28 percent, China Merchants Bank spiked 3.02 percent, Bank of Communications plunged 3.41 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.82 percent, Jiangxi Copper dipped 0.20 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) advanced 0.91 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1.57 percent, PetroChina dropped 0.81 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) was up 0.16 percent, Huaneng Power declined 1.60 percent, China Shenhua Energy lost 0.52 percent, Gemdale strengthened 1.26 percent, Poly Developments jumped 1.42 percent and China Vanke accelerated 2.98 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday but rallied to finish mixed and flat.

The Dow dropped 57.94 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 38,589.16, while the NASDAQ rose 21.32 points or 0.12 percent to close at a record 17,688.88 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.14 points or 0.04 percent to end at 5,431.60.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.2 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.6 percent and the Dow fell 0.5 percent.

Traders looked to cash in on recent strength in the markets early in the session, but selling pressure became subdued after the Labor Department noted unexpected decreases by U.S. import and export prices in May.

While Federal Reserve officials forecast just one rate cut this year following this week's monetary policy meeting, traders are hopeful the predictions will turn out to be overly conservative if inflation continues to slow in the coming months.

Oil futures snapped a four-day winning streak and settled lower on Friday after data showed a jump in U.S. crude inventories, while a stronger greenback weighed as well. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July fell $0.17 or about 0.22 percent at $78.45 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained nearly 4 percent in the week.