China Stock Market May Halt Its Slide On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, stumbling more than 65 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 2,965-point plateau although it's overdue for support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with continued profit taking among technology stocks likely to cap any upside. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the property stocks and resource companies, while the financials offered support.

For the day, the index slumped 35.04 points or 1.17 percent to finish at 2,963.10 after trading between 2,960.13 and 2,990.64.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.09 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.45 percent, China Construction Bank rose 0.42 percent, China Merchants Bank improved 1.10 percent, Bank of Communications advanced 0.83 percent, China Life Insurance shed 0.41 percent, Jiangxi Copper tumbled 1.78 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surrendered 2.24 percent, Yankuang Energy plunged 4.41 percent, PetroChina added 0.60 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dipped 0.16 percent, Huaneng Power jumped 1.98 percent, China Shenhua Energy gathered 0.32 percent, Gemdale plunged 3.12 percent, Poly Developments stumbled 1.80 percent and China Vanke slumped 2.78 percent.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be a dichotomy as the major averages opened mixed and finished the same way, with only the Dow finishing in the green.

The Dow rallied 260.88 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 39,411.21, while the NASDAQ tumbled 192.54 points or 1.09 percent to close at 17,496.82 and the S&P 500 fell 16.75 points or 0.31 percent to end at 5,447.87.

The weakness on Wall Street came as technology stocks dragged the markets lower, with Nvidia Corporation, Dell Technologies and QualComm all plummeting on profit taking.

Traders also were looking ahead to Friday's Commerce Department's report on personal income and spending in May, which includes readings on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve.

Oil prices gained Monday on optimism about the outlook for demand and likely supply disruptions due to tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August rose $0.90 or 1.1 percent at $81.63 a barrel.