China Bourse May See Continued Selling Pressure

(RTTNews) - The China stock market headed south again on Friday, one session after ending the two-day losing streak in which it had fallen almost 20 points or 0.6 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,115-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financials, properties and oil companies.

For the day, the index lost 8.81 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 3,117.74 after trading between 3,107.45 and 3,141.96. The Shenzhen Composite Index fell 5.90 points or 0.31 percent to end at 1,911.12.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 1.07 percent, while Bank of China sank 0.80 percent, China Construction Bank shed 0.65 percent, China Merchants Bank fell 0.33 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 0.94 percent, Jiangxi Copper added 0.50 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) perked 0.15 percent, Yankuang Energy rose 0.19 percent, PetroChina lost 0.60 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) retreated 1.62 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 3.03 percent, China Shenhua Energy was up 0.06 percent, Gemdale eased 0.14 percent, Poly Developments declined 1.40 percent, China Vanke slumped 0.67 percent and Bank of Communications was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and worsened as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 288.86 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 34,618.86, while the NASDAQ plunged 217.76 points or 1.56 percent to close at 13,708.33 and the S&P 500 sank 54.78 points or 1.22 percent to end at 4,450.32.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ fell 0.4 percent and the S&P dipped 0.2 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week, but the latest batch of U.S. economic data reignited concerns about the possibility of future rate hikes.

The Labor Department said on Friday that import and export prices rose significantly more than expected, while the New York Fed noted a big jump in New York manufacturing activity this month - all of which bode ill for the outlook for interest rates.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, rising on optimism over the outlook for Chinese demand after reports showed Chinese refiners broke refining rate records in August. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.61 or 0.7 percent at $90.77 a barrel.