Renewed Consolidation Likely For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Friday snapped the three-day losing streak in which it had slipped more than 50 points or 1.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,890-point plateau although it's expected to head south again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on renewed pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the resource stocks, weakness from the financials and oil companies and a mixed performance from the property sector.

For the day, the index added 16.03 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 3,889.35 after trading between 3,850.60 and 3,891.81. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 16.25 points or 0.66 percent to end at 2,473.40.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.38 percent, while Bank of China stumbled 2.10 percent, Agricultural Bank of China tanked 2.65 percent, China Merchants Bank perked 0.14 percent, Bank of Communications dipped 0.14 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.69 percent, Jiangxi Copper climbed 1.17 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 2.67 percent, Yankuang Energy dropped 0.89 percent, PetroChina retreated 1.35 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.69 percent, Huaneng Power added 0.38 percent, China Shenhua Energy sank 0.77 percent, Gemdale slid 0.32 percent, China Vanke slumped 0.99 percent and Poly Developments was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the session underwater.

The Dow dropped 245.96 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 48,458.05, while the NASDAQ tumbled 398.69 points or 1.69 percent to close at 23,195.17 and the S&P 500 sank 73.59 points or 1.07 percent to end at 6,827.41.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent and the NASDAQ dove 1.6 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street was fueled by losses on the NASDAQ, which saw heavy selling among the technology stocks on renewed concerns over valuations.

Weak sentiment was also generated by comments from Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee, who explained his decision to vote against cutting interest rates at last week's Fed meeting saying that more inflation data should have been necessary.

Crude oil prices weakened on Friday as traders kept an eye on the latest developments in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery fell $0.20 or 0.4 percent at $57.40 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will release November numbers for industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment and unemployment later this morning. Production is expected to climb 5.0 percent on year, up from 4.9 percent in October. Sales are seen unchanged at an annual 2.9 percent. FAI is expected to fall 2.3 percent after sinking 1.7 percent a month earlier. The jobless rate was 5.1 percent in October.