Renewed Consolidation Expected For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Friday halted the three-day slide in which it had fallen more than 110 points or 2.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,810-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns about the health of the American economy. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are also expected to open to the downside.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the property and resource stocks, while the financials and oil companies were soft.

For the day, the index spiked 46.64 points or 1.24 percent to finish at 3,812.51 after trading between 3,745.31 and 3,817.16. The Shenzhen Composite Index surged 74.37 points or 3.19 percent to end at 2,405.82.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China lost 1.33 percent, while Bank of China declined 1.78 percent, Agricultural Bank of China stumbled 2.93 percent, China Merchants Bank sank 0.67 percent, Bank of Communications dropped 0.95 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 1.16 percent, Jiangxi Copper accelerated 2.73 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) soared 3.63 percent, Yankuang Energy rallied 1.33 percent, PetroChina skidded 1.00 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) tumbled 1.56 percent, Huaneng Power strengthened 1.48 percent, China Shenhua Energy dipped 0.03 percent, Gemdale improved 0.77 percent, Poly Developments perked 0.26 percent and China Vanke advanced 0.92 percent.

The lead from the Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the day in the red.

The Dow stumbled 220.44 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 45,400.86, while the NASDAQ fell 7.31 points or 0.03 percent to close at 21,700.39 and the S&P 500 sank 20.58 points or 0.32 percent to end at 6,481.50. For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P rose 0.3 percent and the Dow dipped 0.3 percent.

The early downturn on Wall Street came as traders digested a closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected U.S. job growth in the month of August.

Traders initially reacted positively to the report amid optimism the data will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month. But buying interest quickly waned amid concerns about the outlook for the economy.

Crude oil moved sharply lower on Friday as oversupply concerns grew stronger ahead of OPEC's Sunday meeting, where the group did as expected and boosted output. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery dropped $1.64 or 2.58 percent to $61.84 per barrel.