China Shares Expected To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day slide in which it had slipped just 10 points or 0.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite now sits just above the 3,325-point plateau and it's tipped to open higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for Asian markets is positive, with bargain hunting expected after some heavy selling last week. The European and U.S. markets were up on Friday and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the properties and resource stocks were capped by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index advanced 30.76 points or 0.93 percent to finish at 3,326.46 after trading between 3,293.69 and 3,357.50. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 33.15 points or 1.67 percent to end at 2,016.94.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was down 0.65 percent, while Bank of China slid 0.40 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.75 percent, China Merchants Bank fell 0.36 percent, Agricultural Bank of China dropped 0.82 percent, China Life Insurance improved 1.15 percent, Jiangxi Copper advanced 0.91 percent, Yankuang Energy rose 0.14 percent, PetroChina perked 0.12 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.62 percent, Huaneng Power climbed 1.01 percent, China Shenhua Energy sank 0.77 percent, Gemdale soared 4.31 percent, Poly Developments accelerated 2.09 percent, China Vanke strengthened 1.42 percent and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages returned from Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday by opening in the green on Friday and continuing to pick up steam as the shortened session progressed, ending near the day's highs.

The Dow jumped 188.59 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 44,910.65, while the NASDAQ rallied 157.69 points or 0.83 percent to close at 19,218.17 and the S&P 500 gained 33.64 points or 0.56 percent to end at 6,032.38.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 both jumped 1.1 percent, while the narrower Dow surged 1.4 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as some traders looked to pick up stocks at relatively reduced levels following pullback seen on Wednesday.

Semiconductor stocks led the rebound, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbing by 1.5 percent after hitting its lowest intraday level in over two months in the previous session.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Friday after OPEC postponed its meeting to Dec. 5, despite expectations the group will delay production increases. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January shed $0.72 or 1.1 percent at $68.00 a barrel. WTI crude futures lost 4.5 percent in the week.