China Bourse May Take Further Damage On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 75 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,175-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns about economic outlook and expectations for interest rates. The Eruopean and U.S. markets were solidly lower and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The SCI finished barely lower on Tuesday as losses from the properties and resource stocks were mitigated by support from the financial sector.

For the day, the index dipped 2.25 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 3,176.18 after trading between 3,147.35 and 3,186.23. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 13.21 points or 0.66 percent to end at 1,986.43.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China jumped 1.75 percent, while Bank of China spiked 2.69 percent, China Construction Bank climbed 1.19 percent, China Merchants Bank fell 0.31 percent, Bank of Communications rallied 2.56 percent, Industrial Bank collected 0.53 percent, China Life Insurance soared 2.79 percent, Jiangxi Copper shed 0.67 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) sank 0.82 percent, Yankuang Energy dipped 0.23 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) advanced 1.15 percent, Huaneng Power accelerated 2.09 percent, China Shenhua Energy added 0.58 percent, Gemdale lost 0.37 percent, Poly Developments eased 0.21 percent, China Vanke declined 0.76 percent and PetroChina was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened sharply lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 361.24 points or 1.02 percent to finish at 34,946.39, while the NASDAQ slumped 157.28 points or 1.14 percent to close at 13,631.05 and the S&P 500 sank 51.86 points or 1.16 percent to end at 4,437.86.

Worries about the health of the Chinese economy, and concerns that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates higher for a longer time to contain inflation weigh on sentiment.

A warning from Fitch that it may have to downgrade credit ratings of several banks, including JP Morgan, is hurting as well.

Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand following a batch of weak economic data from China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September sank $1.52 or 1.8 percent at $80.99 a barrel.