China Shares May Crack Resistance At 4,200 Points

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Friday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 100 points or 2.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 4,180-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on strong employment data from the United States. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are expected to move mostly higher.

The SCI finished barely lower on Friday following losses from the energy companies, a mixed performance from the financial shares and gains from the property sector.

For the day, the index eased 0.14 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 4,179.95 after trading between 4,154.25 and 4,183.06. The Shenzhen Composite Index perked 3.51 points or 0.12 percent to end at 2,875.75.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 0.95 percent, while Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.44 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.03 percent, Bank of Communications perked 0.15 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.35 percent, Jiangxi Copper rallied 2.44 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) fell 0.34 percent, PetroChina retreated 1.33 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) slumped 0.95 percent, Huaneng Power dipped 0.14 percent, China Shenhua Energy dropped 0.90 percent, Poly Developments gained 0.47 percent, China Vanke added 0.50 percent and Gemdale, Yankuang Energy and Bank of China were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and largely stayed that way, although the Dow spent the ay bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,609.16, while the NASDAQ rallied 440.88 points or 1.71 percent to end at 26,247.08 and the S&P 500 gained 61.82 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,398.93.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent and the Dow crept up 0.2 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected U.S. job growth in April.

The data helped ease concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East even after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil prices inched higher Friday as Middle East tensions renewed between the U.S. and Iran. Iran is also delaying its response to a U.S. peace proposal, adding to the uncertainty. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $0.36 or 0.36 percent at $95.17 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will release April figures for consumer and producer prices this morning. In March, consumer prices were down 0.7 percent on month and up 1.0 percent on year, while producer prices added an annual 0.5 percent.