More Pain 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 more than 25 points or 0.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,285-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uncertain amidst debt ceiling negotiations in the United States. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index lost 13.78 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 3,283.54 after trading between 3,268.22 and 3,302.34. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 2.42 points or 0.12 percent to end at 2,031.10.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.56 percent, while Bank of China stumbled 1.19 percent, China Construction Bank skidded 1.04 percent, China Merchants Bank declined 1.45 percent, Bank of Communications tumbled 1.85 percent, China Life Insurance climbed 1.07 percent, Jiangxi Copper slipped 0.26 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surrendered 1.58 percent, Yankuang Energy added 0.60 percent, PetroChina slumped 2.33 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) plunged 2.73 percent, Huaneng Power tanked 1.90 percent, China Shenhua Energy perked 0.03 percent, Gemdale dropped 1.55 percent, Poly Developments sank 1.74 percent, China Vanke shed 0.55 percent and China Fortune Land dove 2.52 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is slightly soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slipped into the shortly thereafter and finished the same way.

The Dow dropped 109.27 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 33,426.63, while the NASDAQ sank 30.90 points or 0.24 percent to close at 12,657.90 and the S&P 500 fell 6.07 points or 0.14 percent to end at 4,191.98. For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.0 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7 percent and the Dow rose 0.4 percent.

The downturn on Wall Street came as Republican negotiators walked out of a meeting over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, offsetting recent optimism about an impending deal.

Selling pressure remained relatively subdued, however, as traders still expect lawmakers to eventually reach a debt ceiling deal.

Comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reinforcing expectations the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged next month also helped limit the downside.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Friday, weighed down by the ambiguity regarding the U.S. debt ceiling talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June slipped $0.31 or 0.4 percent to $71.55 a barrel; WTI crude futures gained 2.2 percent in the week.

Closer to home, The People's Bank of China will announce its latest loan prime rate later today, with forecasts calling for no change at 3.65 percent.