BEIJING: The China stock market has moved higher in three consecutive trading days, gathering almost 60 points or 1.9 percent in that span. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests above the 3,260-point plateau, although the rally may stall on Thursday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, thanks to profit taking, a fall in crude oil prices and the outlook for interest rates. 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 Wednesday as gains from the oil companies and telecoms were capped by a mixed bag from the financials and weakness from the property stocks.
For the day, the index picked up 7.89 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 3,261.22 after trading between 3,243.84 and 3,261.38. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 9.20 points or 0.46 percent to end at 1,990.34. Among the actives, Agricultural Bank of China shed 0.31 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.27 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China added 0.43 percent, Vanke lost 0.38 percent, PetroChina gained 0.60 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.36 percent, Zijin Mining fell 0.27 percent and China Unicom was up 0.15 percent. The lead from Wall Street is soft as stocks showed a lack of direction on Wednesday before ending little changed.
The Dow rose 32.60 points or 0.2 percent to 20,775.60, while the NASDAQ eased 5.32 points or 0.1 percent to 5,860.63 and the S&P fell 2.56 points or 0.1 percent to 2,362.82. The lackluster close followed the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting – which said that it might be appropriate to raise interest rates again fairly soon if the data is agreeable. In other economic news, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales rebounded by more than expected in January. Energy stocks saw considerable weakness, however, with a drop by the price of crude oil weighing on the sector. Crude for April delivery fell $0.74 to $53.59 a barrel.
