China Stock Market May Extend Thursday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Thursday snapped the two-day slide in which it had dropped almost 60 points or 1.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sit just beneath the 4,100-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on hopes for an end to the U.S.-Iran war. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished slightly higher on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and energy producers.

For the day, the index perked 4.91 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 4,098.64 after trading between 4,055.83 and 4,110.78. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 25.03 points or 0.88 percent to end at 2,859.88.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 1.12 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.68 percent, Agricultural Bank of China retreated 1.58 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.32 percent, Bank of Communications sank 0.76 percent, China Life Insurance dipped 0.21 percent, Jiangxi Copper declined 1.47 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 4.56 percent, Yankuang Energy jumped 1.65 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dropped 0.41 percent, Huaneng Power rallied 4.54 percent, China Shenhua Energy perked 0.11 percent, Gemdale added 0.38 percent, Poly Developments slumped 1.06 percent, China Vanke lost 0.60 percent and PetroChina was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened lower on Thursday but quickly moved to the upside to finish with varying degrees of gains to close at fresh record highs.

The Dow added 24.69 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 50,668.97, while the NASDAQ jumped 242.74 points or 0.91 percent to end at 26,917.47 and the S&P 500 gained 43.27 points or 0.58 percent to close at 7,563.63.

The turnaround on Wall Street came after a report from Axios said U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding.

Crude oil prices handed back most of their early gains on Thursday after reports of the understanding between the U.S. and Iran. After surging as much as $3.84 or 4.3 percent to a high of $92.52 a barrel, crude for July delivery ended up $0.32 or 0.4 percent at $89 a barrel.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department said consumer prices in the U.S. increased slightly less than expected in April.