China Shares May Open Under Pressure On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, surrendering almost 50 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,340-point plateau and it may see continued consolidation on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft amid continued uncertainty over U.S. trade policies. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished barely lower on Wednesday following losses from the properties, gains from the oil companies and a mixed picture from the property sector.

For the day, the index eased 0.76 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 3,339.93 after trading between 3,336.73 and 3,348.23. The Shenzhen Composite Index dipped 5.58 points or 0.28 percent to end at 1,965.45.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Merchants Bank both were down 0.14 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.54 percent, Agricultural Bank of China slipped 0.18 percent, Bank of Communications shed 0.66 percent, China Life Insurance eased 0.10 percent, Jiangxi Copper rose 0.28 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) added 0.46 percent, Yankuang Energy strengthened 1.34 percent, PetroChina spiked 2.08 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.94 percent, Huaneng Power tanked 2.69 percent, China Shenhua Energy improved 0.73 percent, Gemdale skidded 1.02 percent, Poly Developments dipped 0.25 percent and China Vanke perked 0.15 percent

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages shook off a mildly positive open and headed south through the balance of the session, ending at daily lows.

The Dow dropped 244.95 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 42,098.70, while the NASDAQ sank 98.23 points or 0.51 percent to close at 19,100.94 and the S&P 500 slumped 32.99 points or 0.56 percent to end at 5,888.55.

The choppy trading came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news from AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) after Wednesday's close.

The earnings news after the bell showed that Nvidia beat the street on earnings and revenue, possibly lending support to technology shares going forward.

Lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's trade policies also kept some traders on the sidelines following recent volatility.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Wednesday on news that OPEC will establish output quotas for 2027. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery climbed $0.87 or 1.43 percent to $61.76 per barrel.