China Stock Market May Challenge 3,300-Point Level

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Wednesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 30 points or 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,280-point plateau although it's expected to move higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks and a mixed picture from the resource companies.

For the day, the index slid 12.79 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 3,280.49 after trading between 3,274.55 and 3,296.20. The Shenzhen Composite Index eased 1.30 points or 0.06 percent to end at 2,187.51.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.23 percent, while China Construction Bank shed 0.54 percent, China Merchants Bank tanked 2.18 percent, Bank of Communications dipped 0.21 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.33 percent, Jiangxi Copper soared 2.72 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) advanced 0.92 percent, Yankuang Energy declined 1.30 percent, PetroChina lost 0.39 percent, Huaneng Power climbed 0.99 percent, China Shenhua Energy stumbled 1.13 percent, Gemdale plunged 2.40 percent, Poly Developments plummeted 3.08 percent, China Vanke slumped2.09 percent and Bank of China, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) and China Fortune Land Development were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened sharply lower on Wednesday but improved steadily throughout the session and finished in the green.

The Dow added 38.78 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 34,128.05, while the NASDAQ jumped 110.45 points or 0.92 percent to end at 12,070.59 and the S&P 500 rose 11.47 points or 0.28 percent to close at 4,147.60.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of upbeat retail sales data.

The sharp increase in retail sales has led to concerns the Federal Reserve will be encouraged to continue aggressively raising interest rates in an effort to combat inflation.

The concerns about rates may have been partly offset by a separate report from the Federal Reserve showing U.S. industrial production was unexpectedly unchanged in January.

Crude oil prices came off daily lows but still moved solidly lower on Wednesday, hurt by a stronger U.S. dollar and a spike in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate was down $0.47 or 0.6 percent to $78.59 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will provide January numbers for house prices later this morning; in December, prices were down 1.5 percent on year.