Lower Open Anticipated For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 20 points or 0.6 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,375-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on growing U.S. tariff concerns. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian markets are also expected to open under pressure. The SCI finished slightly lower on Monday as losses from the financials and oil companies were mitigated by support from the property sector. For the day, the index dipped 6.09 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 3,373.03 after trading between 3,355.87 and 3,384.81. The Shenzhen Composite Index perked 2.65 points or 0.13 percent to end at 2,091.46. Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.58 percent, while Bank of China dropped 0.92 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.69 percent, China Merchants Bank fell 0.31 percent, Agricultural Bank of China sank 0.77 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.63 percent, Ping An dipped 0.19 percent, Jiangxi Copper eased 0.10 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) slid 0.13 percent, Yankuang Energy jumped 1.84 percent, PetroChina skidded 1.13 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) slumped 0.51 percent, Huaneng Power slipped 0.15 percent, China Shenhua Energy climbed 1.07 percent, Gemdale rallied 2.19 percent, Poly Developments spiked 1.83 percent and China Vanke soared 2.62 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Monday but faded quickly and finished mixed.

The Dow added 33.19 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 43,461.21, while the NASDAQ tumbled 237.08 points or 1.21 percent to close at 19,286.93 and the S&P 500 sank 29.88 points or 0.50 percent to end at 5,983.25.

The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 ended the day firmly in the red after President Donald Trump said previously delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico are "going forward on time." The volatility on Wall Street also came as traders looked ahead to the release of earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA). The AI darling and market leader is scheduled to release its fourth quarter results after the close of trading on Wednesday.

Oil prices climbed higher on Monday as fresh sanctions by the United States on Iran raised the possibility of a drop in global supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled higher by $0.30 at $70.70 a barrel.