China Shares Likely To Open Under Pressure On Friday

The China stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 30 points or 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,170-point plateau and it’s expected to see continued consolidation on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is decidedly soft on concerns about the economy and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets are tipped to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financials, properties and resource stocks.

For the day, the index shed 7.88 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 3,168.65 after trading between 3,158.45 and 3,179.10. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 6.31 points or 0.31 percent to end at 2,054.91.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.70 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.63 percent, China Construction Bank dropped 0.89 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.57 percent, Bank of Communications and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) both sank 0.84 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.54 percent, Jiangxi Copper declined 1.19 percent, Yankuang Energy tanked 2.68 percent, PetroChina skidded 0.97 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) slumped 0.90 percent, Huaneng Power jumped 1.61 percent, China Shenhua Energy stumbled 1.53 percent, Gemdale surrendered 0.82 percent, Poly Developments weakened 0.32 percent, China Vanke was down 0.68 percent and China Fortune Land rallied 2.25 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Thursday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow plummeted 773.26 points or 2.28 percent to finish at 33,193.09, while the NASDAQ plunged 356.54 points or 3.19 percent to close at 10.814.35 and the S&P 500 tumbled 99.45 points or 2.49 percent to end at 3,895.87.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday was more hawkish than expected.

A batch of disappointing U.S. economic data also added to concerns the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hikes will push the economy into a recession.

Retail sales dropped more than expected last month, as did industrial production. Also, the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserves showed contractions in regional manufacturing activity in the month of December.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday as concerns about easing supply following a partial restart of the Keystone Pipeline. The dollar’s rise on hawkish comments by the Federal Reserve weighed as well on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.17 or 1.5 percent at $76.11 a barrel.