Little Movement Seen For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had eased just six points or 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,050-point plateau and it's likely to remain rangebound again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished barely higher on Thursday following gains from the financials and resource stocks and a mixed performance from the properties.

For the day, the index rose 0.91 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 3,053.28 after trading between 3,046.40 and 3,063.47. The Shenzhen Composite Index dipped 8.95 points or 0.47 percent to end at 1,911.89.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China strengthened 1.49 percent, while Bank of China jumped 1.80 percent, China Construction Bank rallied 1.92 percent, China Merchants Bank rose 0.20 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.87 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.37 percent, Jiangxi Copper added 0.40 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) perked 0.17 percent, Yankuang Energy surged 5.46 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.85 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) accelerated 1.69 percent, Huaneng Power was up 0.13 percent, China Shenhua Energy soared 3.23 percent, Gemdale improved 0.74 percent, Poly Developments gained 0.36 percent and China Vanke declined 1.40 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened flat on Thursday and hugged the line for the first half of the day before turning lower to end solidly in the red.

The Dow stumbled 220.33 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 33,891.94, while the NASDAQ sank 128.97 points or 0.94 percent to end at 13,521.45 and the S&P 500 lost 35.43 points or 0.81 percent to close at 4,347.35.

Stocks showed a notable drop in early afternoon trading after the Treasury Department revealed this month's auction of $24 billion worth of 30-year bonds attracted below average demand, triggering a surge in treasury yields.

The markets saw further downside as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed the outlook for U.S. monetary policy, saying the central bank "will not hesitate" to resume raising interest rates if it becomes appropriate.

Participating in a policy panel in Washington, D.C., Powell acknowledged that U.S. inflation has slowed over the past year but pointed out it remains well above the Fed's 2 percent target.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday after two straight sessions of decline on concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December rose $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $75.74 a barrel, due to some short-covering and bargain hunting.

Closer to home, China will see new loan data later today, with forecasts suggesting a total of CNY650.0 billion, down from CNY2.310 trillion previously.