China Stock Market May Add To Its Winnings On Monday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had eased just 7 points or 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,200-point plateau and it's expected to see continued strength on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive thanks to better than expected inflation data. The European and U.S. markets finished higher and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, resource stocks and properties.

For the day, the index gained 19.68 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 3,202.06 after trading between 3,177.99 and 3,212.99. The Shenzhen Composite improved 21.91 points or 1.08 percent to end at 2,049.23.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 0.84 percent, while Bank of China strengthened 1.30 percent, China Construction Bank collected 0.97 percent, China Merchants Bank rose 0.24 percent, Bank of Communications climbed 1.22 percent, China Life Insurance shed 0.65 percent, Jiangxi Copper improved 1.23 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) added 0.55 percent, Yankuang Energy spiked 2.26 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) increased 0.95 percent, Huaneng Power perked 0.11 percent, China Shenhua Energy rallied 1.99 percent, Gemdale was up 0.14 percent, Poly Developments dropped 1.21 percent, China Vanke gathered 0.07 percent, China Fortune Land accelerated 1.84 percent and PetroChina was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the day, closing near session highs.

The Dow jumped 285.20 points or 0.84 percent to finish at 34,407.60, while the NASDAQ rallied 196.62 points or 1.45 percent to end at 13,787.92 and the S&P 500 climbed 53.94 points or 1.23 percent to close at 4,450.38.

For the week, the S&P 500 spiked 2.4 percent, the NASDAQ shot up 2.2 percent and the Dow leapt 2.0 percent. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 also posted substantial gains for the first half of 2023.

The rally on Wall Street followed the release of a Commerce Department report showing an unexpected slowdown in the annual rate of consumer price growth in May.

While economists generally still expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by another quarter point this month, the data added to optimism the central bank will not follow through with additional rate hikes.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, extending recent gains, as a drop in U.S. crude inventories continued to support the commodity. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $0.78 or 1.1 percent at $70.64 a barrel. However, WTI Crude futures shed about 12 percent in H1 and more than 6 percent in Q2.