China Stock Market May Extend Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The China stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after ending the three-day slide in which it had dropped almost 60 points or 2.1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,765-point plateau and it's likely to take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns over the health of the world's economy. The European and U.S. markets were firmly lower and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the property stocks, resource shares and energy companies.

For the day, the index sank 22.50 points or 0.81 percent to finish at 2,765.81 after trading between 2,765.64 and 2,804.09. The Shenzhen Composite Index tumbled 24.44 points or 1.60 percent to end at 1,505.18.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China perked 0.18 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.21 percent, China Construction Bank slid 0.28 percent, China Merchants Bank was up 0.16 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.22 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.32 percent, Jiangxi Copper shed 0.42 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1.35 percent, PetroChina skidded 1.11 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.76 percent, Huaneng Power declined 1.33 percent, China Shenhua Energy tumbled 1.76 percent, Gemdale plummeted 6.22 percent, Poly Developments slumped 1.28 percent, China Vanke stumbled 1.82 percent and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but quickly turned lower and spent the rest of the day under water, finishing with heavy losses.

The Dow stumbled 410.39 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 40,345.41, while the NASDAQ plunged 436.87 points or 2.55 percent to close at 16,690.83 and the S&P 500 sank 94.99 points or 1.73 percent to end at 5,408.42.

For the week, the NASDAQ plummeted 5.8 percent, the Dow tanked 2.9 percent and the S&P tumbled 4.3 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy after the Labor Department released a closely watched report showing employment rose by less than expected in the month of August.

While the data is seen as increasing the chances of a 50-basis point interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this month, traders seemed worried the central bank may have waited too long to prevent the economy from slipping into a recession.

Oil prices fell to an 18-month low on Friday, weighed down persisting concerns about the outlook for oil demand following the disappointing jobs report. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $1.48 or 2.1 percent at $67.67 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will release August numbers for consumer and producer prices later this morning. Overall inflation is expected to add 0.5 percent on month and 0.7 percent on year after rising 0.5 percent both on month and on year in July. Producer prices are tipped to fall 1.4 percent on year after shedding 0.8 percent in the previous month.