More Pain Predicted For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked lower in three straight sessions, tumbling almost 140 points or 4 percent in that span. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,125-point plateau and it's projected to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on fears for the global economy and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index retreated 73.52 points or 2.30 percent to finish at the daily low of 3,126.40 after peaking at 3,191.83. The Shenzhen Composite Index slumped 46.19 points or 2.30 percent to end at 2,005.60.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.68 percent, while Bank of China declined 1.29 percent, China Construction Bank dropped 0.90 percent, China Merchants Bank tanked 2.94 percent, Bank of Communications skidded 1.08 percent, China Life Insurance tumbled 2.14 percent, Jiangxi Copper cratered 4.17 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plummeted 5.27 percent, Yankuang Energy plunged 4.75 percent, PetroChina retreated 3.07 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) declined 2.27 percent, Huaneng Power surrendered 3.79 percent, China Shenhua Energy slumped 4.41 percent, Gemdale lost 5.31 percent, Poly Developments fell 4.24 percent, China Vanke sank 2.70 percent and China Fortune Land was down 4.78 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened firmly lower and stayed that was throughout the session.

The Dow slumped 139.38 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 30,822.42, while the NASDAQ dropped 104.00 points or 0.90 percent to close at 11,448.40 and the S&P 500 fell 28.02 points or 0.72 percent to end at 3,873.33.

For the week, the Dow tumbled 4.1 percent, the S&P 500 plunged 4.8 percent and the NASDAQ plummeted 5.5 percent.

A steep drop by shares of FedEx (FDX) fueled the weakness on Wall Street, with the delivery giant plunging 21.4 percent to a two-year closing low. The sell-off by FedEx came after the company reported weaker than expected preliminary fiscal Q1 results and withdrew its full-year guidance.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates also continued to weigh on the markets ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision this week. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, although some see an outside chance for a 100-point rate hike.

Crude oil futures settled roughly flat on Friday following the resumption of oil exports from Iraq's Basra oil terminal, where a spillage had forced disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for October settled at $85.11 a barrel, up $0.01 from the previous close. WTI crude futures shed nearly 2 percent in the week.

Closer to home, China will see August results for foreign direct investment later today; in July, FDI was up 17.3 percent on year.