China Shares Poised To Return To The Downside On Monday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Friday's holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival, the China stock market had moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 110 points or 2.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sit just above the 4,090-point plateau and it may see continued consolidation on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is week after Iran closed down the Strait of Hormuz again over the weekend. The European markets were soft and the U.S. bourses were off and the Asian markets also figure to open in the red.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and oil and insurance companies.

For the day, the index sank 17.59 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 4,090.48 after trading between 4,080.29 and 4,117.45. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 15.01 points or 0.53 percent to end at 2,853.37.

Among the actives, gave up 2.72 percent, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Bank of China lost 2.69 percent, Agricultural Bank of China sank 2.45 percent, China Merchants Bank skidded 2.54 percent, Bank of Communications declined 3.19 percent, China Life Insurance cratered 5.89 percent, Jiangxi Copper skyrocketed 10.01 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 5.92 percent, Yankuang Energy slumped 3.34 percent, PetroChina contracted 1.94 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) stumbled 2.89 percent, Huaneng Power surrendered 3.54 percent, China Shenhua Energy retreated 1.43 percent, Gemdale tumbled 3.72 percent, Poly Developments tanked 3.15 percent and China Vanke dropped 0.97 percent.

The markets on Wall Street were closed on Friday for the Juneteenth holiday, but the European bourses ended mostly under water.

The UK's FTSE 100 ended down 0.35 percent, while Germany's DAX drifted down 0.16 percent and France's CAC 40 lost 0.55percent and Switzerland's SMI edged up 0.06 percent.

The weakness that emerged was due to uncertainty about U.S. and Iran securing a lasting peace truce in the Middle East following the abrupt cancellation of talks between the two nations in Switzerland.

The cancellation happened following exchange of fresh attacks between Israel and Hezbollah, and Iran then accused the U.S. of breaking the agreement - since one of the main conditions was for Israel to also cease hostilities.

Crude oil prices tumbled last week on reports that the Strait of Hormuz was re-opened, falling more than 10 percent from the previous week's close to below $80. But Iran closed the strait again over the weekend, likely prompting a rebound in crude prices this week.

Closer to home, the People's Bank of China will release loan prime rate figures later this morning; in June, the rate was 3.50 percent, while the overall rate was 3.00 percent.