China Stock Market Likely To Remain Rangebound On Friday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had slipped almost 50 points or 0.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,270-point plateau although it's expected to hand back those gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index climbed 38.28 points or 1.18 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,270.38 after moving as low as 3,225.77. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped32.89 points or 1.54 percent to end at 2,174.20.

Among the actives, Bank of China rose 0.31 percent, while China Construction Bank collected 0.36 percent, Bank of Communications perked 0.21 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.30 percent, Jiangxi Copper added 0.53 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) increased 0.38 percent, Yankuang Energy was up 0.09 percent, PetroChina gathered 0.39 percent, Huaneng Power sank 0.63 percent, China Shenhua Energy improved 0.43 percent, Gemdale climbed 1.16 percent, Poly Developments advanced 0.90 percent, China Vanke strengthened 0.97 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages were unable to hold on to early gains on Thursday, sinking into the red by midday and ending at daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 249.13 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 33,699.88, while the NASDAQ slumped 120.94 points or 1.02 percent to close at 11,789.58 and the S&P 500 sank 36.36 points or 0.88 percent to end at 4,081.50.

The sharp pullback on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing interest rate concerns following hawkish comments by some Federal Reserve officials.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by slightly more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures ended lower Thursday as rising crude inventories in the U.S. and prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $78.06 a barrel.