Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering almost 35 points or 1.2 percent in that span. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,150-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with profit taking likely to cap any upside. The European markets were soft and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Friday following huge gains from the property sector and mor measured upside from the financial shares and resource stocks.

For the day, the index climbed 31.63 points or 1.01 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,154.03 after moving as low as 3,116.78. The Shenzhen Composite Index rallied 20.88 points or 1.18 percent to end at 1,785.59.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.11 percent, while Bank of China added 0.45 percent, China Construction Bank fell 0.42 percent, China Merchants Bank strengthened 1.66 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.86 percent, China Life Insurance jumped 1.85 percent, Jiangxi Copper rallied 1.60 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) accelerated 1.57 percent, Yankuang Energy gained 0.54 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.92 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.63 percent, Huaneng Power retreated 1.34 percent, China Shenhua Energy increased 0.73 percent and Gemdale, Poly Developments and China Vanke all surged by the 10 percent daily limit.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and fairly flat and finished much the same.

The Dow climbed 134.19 points or 0.34 percent to finish at a record 40,003.59, while the NASDAQ slipped 12.33 points or 0.07 percent to close at 16,685.97 and the S&P 500 rose 6.17 points or 0.12 percent to end at 5,303.27.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.1 percent, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 percent and the Dow shot up 1.2 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves as they digest recent strength in the markets, which saw the major averages reach new record highs.

In economic news, the Conference Board noted a continued decrease by its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of April.

Oil prices rose on Friday amid easing inflation, data showing a drop in inventories, and hopes of interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June climbed to $80.06 a barrel, gaining $0.79 or more than 1 percent. WTI crude futures gained 2.3 percent in the week.