Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, collecting almost 75 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,430-point plateau although it's expected to open in the red on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of the FOMC rate decision later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished slightly higher on Tuesday following gains from the resource stocks, weakness from the properties and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index perked 3.63 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 3,429.76 after trading between 3,423.30 and 3,437.07. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 10.37 points or 0.49 percent to end at 2,122.66.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dipped 0.15 percent, while China Construction Bank fell 0.35 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.22 percent, Agricultural Bank of China eased 0.19 percent, China Life Insurance sank 0.79 percent, Jiangxi Copper rallied 1.27 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) improved 0.78 percent, Yankuang Energy skidded 1.09 percent, PetroChina slipped 0.25 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.51 percent, Huaneng Power slumped 1.03 percent, China Shenhua Energy dropped 0.95 percent, Gemdale sank 0.82 percent, Poly Developments lost 0.46 percent, China Vanke was down 0.40 percent and Bank of China was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 260.32 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 41,581.31, while the NASDAQ plunged 304.55 points or 1.71 percent to close at 17,504.12 and the S&P 500 sank 60.46 points or 1.07 percent to end at 5,614.66.

Concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's trade policies continued to weigh along with worries about the economic outlook despite the release of some upbeat economic data.

The Federal Reserve said industrial production in the U.S. increased much more than expected in January. Also, the Commerce Department said new residential construction rebounded more than anticipated in February.

Traders were also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement later today. While the Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement as well as officials' latest projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

Oil futures settled lower on Tuesday as concerns about supply disruptions eased, while worries about global growth due to the impact of U.S. trade tariffs weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.68 or 1 percent at $66.90 a barrel.