Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked higher in consecutive trading days, gathering almost 60 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just shy of the 3,620-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on renewed tariff concerns. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financials, properties and resource companies.

For the day, the index advanced 34.29 points or 0.96 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,617.60 after trading as low as 3,586.97. The Shenzhen Composite Index improved 16.88 points or 0.77 percent to end at 2,209.43.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was up 104 percent, while Bank of China and China Life Insurance both expanded 1.25 percent, Agricultural Bank of China spiked 2.35 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.78 percent, Bank of Communications jumped 1.44 percent, Jiangxi Copper advanced 0.97 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) gained 0.54 percent, Yankuang Energy improved 1.17 percent, PetroChina strengthened 1.42 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 1.06 percent, Huaneng Power rallied 2.30 percent, Gemdale rose 0.26 percent, Poly Developments increased 0.63 percent, China Vanke added 0.62 percent and China Shenhua Energy was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Tuesday but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the day in the red, closing near session lows.

The Dow slipped 61.90 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 44,111.74, while the NASDAQ sank 137.03 points or 0.65 percent to end at 20,916.55 and the S&P 500 dropped 30.75 points or 0.49 percent to close at 6,299.19.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street reflected ongoing trade concerns after President Donald Trump said he will be announcing new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week. Trump said planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. could reach as high as 250 percent.

Negative sentiment was also have been generated by a report from the Institute for Supply Management that unexpectedly showed a modest slowdown in the pace of growth by U.S. service sector activity in the month of July.

Early in the session, stocks benefitted from a positive reaction to some of the latest earnings news, including upbeat quarterly results from software company Palantir (PLTR).

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid US pressure on India to stop buying oil from Russia, as well as OPEC's recent decision to boost production. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery slumped $1.05 or 1.58 percent to $65.24 per barrel.