Lower Open Predicted For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market turned lower again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 20 points or 0.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,990-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the property stocks and industrial issues, while the financial shares were mixed.

For the day, the index dropped 39.01 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 3,990.49 after trading between 3,990.31 and 4,034.08. The Shenzhen Composite Index stumbled 34.58 points or 1.36 percent to end at 2,511.55.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China added 0.49 percent, while Bank of China collected1.39 percent, Agricultural Bank of China sank 0.70 percent, China Merchants Bank perked 0.09 percent, Bank of Communications advanced 0.94 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.41 percent, Jiangxi Copper stumbled 3.29 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 4.19 percent, Yankuang Energy tanked 2.33 percent, PetroChina skidded 1.01 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) added 0.53 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 1.86 percent, China Shenhua Energy slumped 1.24 percent, Gemdale slid 0.25 percent, Poly Developments fell 0.41 percent and China Vanke dipped 0.16 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Friday but hugged the line for most of the day before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 309.74 points or 0.65 percent to finish t 47,147.48, while the NASDAQ rose 30.23 points or 0.13 percent to close at 22,900.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.38 points or 0.05 percent to end at 6,734.11. For the week, the NASDAQ dipped 0.5 percent, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P perked 0.1 percent.

Weakness among technology stocks continued to weigh on Wall Street early in the session amid lingering valuation concerns. However, gains from tech heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA), Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Tesla (TSLA) dragged the NASDAQ into the green.

While some traders used the initial slump as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, buying interest remained somewhat subdued amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials and indications that key U.S. economic data may never be released due to the government shutdown have reduced confidence that the central bank will lower interest rates next month.

Crude oil prices rallied on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack damaged an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $1.28 or 2.2 percent at $59.97 a barrel.