China Stock Market May Give Up Support At 3,000 Points

(RTTNews) - The China stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after ending the three-day slide in which it had fallen more than 30 points or 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,030-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is bleak on rising concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday as heavy losses in the property sector were mitigated by support from the financial shares and resource stocks.

For the day, the index sank 21.20 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 3,027.33 after trading between 3,013.59 and 3,049.61. The Shenzhen Composite Index tumbled 30.52 points or 1.74 percent to end at 1,720.28.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.19 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.22 percent, China Construction Bank gathered 0.29 percent, China Merchants Bank added 0.56 percent, Bank of Communications advanced 0.92 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.36 percent, Jiangxi Copper surged 3.57 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) gained 0.42 percent, Yankuang Energy rallied 2.09 percent, PetroChina jumped 1.48 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.47 percent, Huaneng Power perked 0.10 percent, China Shenhua Energy climbed 1.11 percent, Gemdale plummeted 4.16 percent, Poly Developments plunged 4.24 percent and China Vanke tumbled 5.13 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and stayed in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow plunged 422.16 points or 1.09 percent to finish at 38,461.51, while the NASDAQ slumped 136.28 points or 0.84 percent to close at 16,170.36 and the S&P 500 sank 49.27 points or 0.95 percent to end at 5,160.64.

The early sell-off on Wall Street followed the release of a Labor Department report showing U.S. consumer prices advanced by slightly more than expected in March, also causing a surge in treasury yields.

The data added to recent worries the Federal Reserve will hold off on lowering interest rates amid ongoing inflation concerns. Fed officials have repeatedly said they need greater confidence inflation is slowing before they consider cutting rates.

The minutes of the central bank's latest monetary policy meeting, released later in the day, revealed Fed officials were already not convinced inflation is moving sustainably down to 2 percent after January and February readings on core and headline inflation had been firmer than expected.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday on rising geopolitical tensions amid reports of a likely strike by Iran against Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.98 at $86.21 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will release March figures for consumer and producer prices later this morning. Overall consumer prices are expected to add 0.4 percent on year, easing from 0.7 percent in February. Producer prices are expected to sink an annual 2.8 percent after falling 2.7 percent in the previous month.