Profit Taking May Dent China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, collecting almost 45 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,500-point plateau although it's due for consolidation on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cloudy on lingering concerns over U.S. trade policy. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index improved 24.35 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 3,497.48 after trading between 3,474.63 and 3,499.89. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 27.90 points or 1.34 percent to end at 2,102.36.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 0.39 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.35 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.66 percent, China Merchants Bank advanced 0.89 percent, Bank of Communications slid 0.12 percent, China Life Insurance dipped 0.02 percent, Jiangxi Copper expanded 0.60 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was up 0.28 percent, Yankuang Energy gathered 0.32 percent, PetroChina increased 0.47 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rose 0.53 percent, Huaneng Power eased 0.13 percent, China Shenhua Energy perked 0.05 percent, Gemdale gained 0.51 percent, Poly Developments improved 0.74 percent and China Vanke added 0.61 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Tuesday's trade hugging the line, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 165.60 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 44,240.76, while the NASDAQ rose 5.95 points or 0.03 percent to close at 20,418.46 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.46 points or 0.07 percent to end at 6,225.52.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as investors were reluctant to make significant moves amid lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies.

A lack of major U.S. economic data may also have kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed minutes may shed light on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the central bank's next meeting on July 29-30. CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 95.3 percent chance the Fed will leave rates unchanged this month.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Tuesday on concerns over disruptions to the oil supply lines due to Houthi attacks. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery closed up by $0.40 at $68.33 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will provide June data for consumer and producer prices later this morning. Overall inflation is expected to slip 0.1 percent on year for the second straight month, while producer prices are expected to fall an annual 3.2 percent after slipping 3.3 percent a month earlier.