Soft Start Predicted For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 65 points or 2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,225-point plateau although it's expected to open under pressure on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation, with weakness expected from the technology and oil sectors. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financials, properties and resource stocks, while the energy producers were soft.

For the day, the index advanced 37.99 points or 1.19 percent to finish at 3,227.03 after trading between 3,184.45 and 3,228.89. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 30.69 points or 1.44 percent to end at 2,166.01.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.46 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.33 percent, China Construction Bank improved 0.73 percent, China Merchants Bank jumped 1.90 percent, Bank of Communications added 0.66 percent, China Life Insurance limbed 1.17 percent, Jiangxi Copper surged 4.43 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 2.05 percent, Yankuang Energy plunged 3.64 percent, PetroChina fell 0.39 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) perked 0.25 percent, Huaneng Power lost 0.61 percent, China Shenhua Energy retreated 1.16 percent, Gemdale accelerated 1.86 percent, Poly Developments was up 0.20 percent, China Vanke strengthened 1.42 percent and China Fortune Land gathered 1.07 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed to lower as the major averages opened deep in the red on Friday and recovered somewhat, although only the Dow peeked up into positive territory.

The Dow added 76.67 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 32,803.47, while the NASDAQ sank 63.04 points or 0.50 percent to end at 12,657.55 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.75 points or 0.16 percent to close at 4,145.19.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.2 percent, the S&P rose 0.4 percent and the Dow eased 0.1 percent.

The volatility on Wall Street came as traders reacted to the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report - which showed employment in the U.S. jumped by much more than expected in July, leading to concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

While the data paints a positive picture of the labor market, the report may also give the Federal Reserve confidence they can continue aggressively raising interest rates without causing a recession.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, lifted by the strong jobs report, but still posted a weekly loss amid concerns about demand due to economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $0.47 or 0.5 percent at $89.01 a barrel.