China Stock Market May See Profit Taking On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 85 points or 2.8 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,075-point plateau, although investors may lock in gains on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity with the outlook for interest rates shrouded in uncertainty. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the properties and resource stocks.

For the day, the index climbed 36,21 points or 1.19 percent to finish at 3,077.38 after trading between 3,049.02 and 3,078.49. The Shenzhen Composite Index rallied 41.64 points or 2.38 percent to end at 1,789.25.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.19 percent, while Bank of China improved 1.36 percent, China Construction Bank collected 0.58 percent, China Merchants Bank climbed 1.37 percent, Bank of Communications rallied 2.21 percent, China Life Insurance soared 3.26 percent, Jiangxi Copper strengthened 1.16 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 2.43 percent, Yankuang Energy perked 0.13 percent, PetroChina retreated 1.42 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.47 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 1.92 percent, China Shenhua Energy declined 1.82 percent, Gemdale jumped 1.86 percent, Poly Developments lost 0.44 percent and China Vanke fell 0.22 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but spent most of the day in the red, although the NASDAQ ticked back up into the green by the session's end.

The Dow slumped 240.52 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 39,566.85, while the NASDAQ added 17.37 points or 0.11 percent to close at 16,396.83 and the S&P 500 fell 10.58 points or 0.20 percent to end at 5,243.77.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders finally had an opportunity to react to last Friday's closely watched U.S. consumer price inflation data, which largely matched expectations.

Buying interest remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders expressed uncertainty about whether inflation is slowing quickly enough to guarantee the interest rate cuts expected by the Federal Reserve.

The subsequent pullback by stocks came as a report from the Institute for Supply Management unexpectedly showing modest growth in U.S. manufacturing activity in March contributed to a jump by Treasury yields.

Oil prices moved higher Monday amid concerns about a possible drop in supplies following reports of an Israeli strike near the Iranian embassy in Damascus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.54 or 0.65 percent at $83.71 a barrel.