China Stock Market May Hand Back Monday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the four-day losing streak in which it had lost more than 60 points or 1.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 4,110-point plateau although it may head south again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative thanks to ongoing geopolitical concerns. The European markets were down and the U.S. markets were closed and the Asian bourses are also likely to open under water.

The SCI finished slightly higher on Monday as gains from the properties and oil companies were capped by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index rose 12.09 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 4,114.00 after trading between 4,090.06 and 4,126.52. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 13.53 points or 0.50 percent to end at 2,700.08.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 1.05 percent, while Bank of China sank 0.74 percent, Agricultural Bank of China retreated 1.53 percent, China Merchants Bank shed 0.44 percent, Bank of Communications and China Shenhua Energy both slumped 0.73 percent, Jiangxi Copper plummeted 5.63 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) added 0.53 percent, Yankuang Energy climbed 1.09 percent, PetroChina rose 0.20 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rallied 1.54 percent, Huaneng Power gained 0.40 percent, Poly Developments improved 0.48 percent and China Vanke, China Life Insurance and Gemdale were unchanged.

The U.S. markets were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, while the European markets spent the entire session in the red amid rising geopolitical tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his plan to acquire Greenland.

Trump said NATO had warned Denmark for years about the "Russian threat" to Greenland and claimed Copenhagen had failed to act. "Now it is time, and it will be done!!!" Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform ahead of this week's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

Also weighing on stocks was Trump's announcement of a 10 percent tariff on several EU countries from next month, which raises the tariff on all imports to the U.S. to 25 percent.

Reports suggest that the EU is considering a retaliatory move that would place tariffs on 93 billion euros of U.S. goods or restrict U.S. firms' access to its internal market.