China Shares May Hand Back Tuesday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The China stock market rebounded on Tuesday, one session after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 40 points or 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 4,120-point plateau although it may open under water on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat as traders await further developments in the Middle East conflict. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets are likely to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the property stocks were capped by weakness from the financials and energy companies.

For the day, the index gained 26.54 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 4,123.14 after trading between 4,098.59 and 4,123.96. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 49.28 points or 1.84 percent to end at 2,729.82.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.85 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.56 percent, Agricultural Bank of China slumped 1.20 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 1.11 percent, Bank of Communications shed 0.44 percent, China Life Insurance expanded 1.14 percent, Jiangxi Copper climbed 1.29 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surrendered 2.28 percent, Yankuang Energy tumbled 3.94 percent, PetroChina cratered 7.20 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) plummeted 6.29 percent, Huaneng Power sank 0.79 percent, China Shenhua Energy plunged 3.69 percent, Gemdale gained 0.65 percent, China Vanke added 0.42 percent and Poly Developments was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but quickly moved higher and spent most of the day in the green before a late fade saw them end mixed and little changed.

The Dow dipped 34.29 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 47,706.51, while the NASDAQ perked 1.16 points or 0.01 percent to close at 22,697.10 and the S&P 500 fell 14.51 points or 0.21 percent to end at 6,781.48.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid substantial volatility by the price of crude oil, with crude for April delivery plummeting almost 12 percent after soaring to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday.

Crude oil prices plunged on Tuesday after Trump said that the ongoing war would end "very soon" but provided no details. The conflict has driven oil prices to sky-high levels in recent days. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery tumbled $9.47 or 9.99 percent at $85.30 per barrel.

Traders also seemed to be expressing some uncertainty about the U.S. war with Iran after President Donald Trump's latest remarks about the conflict.

The president claimed in a subsequent post on Truth Social that Iran would be hit "twenty times harder" if they do anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz.