China Shares May See Renewed Support On Thursday

The China stock market turned lower again on Wednesday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 50 points or 1.9 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,720-point plateau although it’s likely to bounce higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday as losses from the financial, resource and energy companies were mitigated by support from the property sector.

For the day, the index stumbled 22.40 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 2,721.80 after trading between 2,710.62 and 2,732.73. The Shenzhen Composite Index eased 0.72 points or 0.05 percent to end at 1,499.53.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tanked 2.29 percent, while Bank of China plunged 3.54 percent, China Construction Bank stumbled 2.47 percent, China Merchants Bank fell 0.36 percent, Agricultural Bank of China surrendered 3.04 percent, China Life Insurance shed 0.41 percent, Jiangxi Copper eased 0.16 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) sank 0.79 percent, Yankuang Energy skidded 1.16 percent, PetroChina retreated 1.90 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) tumbled 3.08 percent, Huaneng Power plummeted 3.19 percent, China Shenhua Energy dropped 2.00 percent, Gemdale climbed 1.11 percent, Poly Developments rallied 0.81 percent and China Vanke added 0.16 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages shook off early weakness and trended steadily higher throughout the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow climbed 124.75 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 40,861.71, while the NASDAQ surged 369.65 points or 2.17 percent to end at 17,395.53 and the S&P 500 rallied 58.61 points or 1.07 percent to close at 5,554.13.

The early sell-off on Wall Street followed the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched consumer price inflation report for August.

While the report showed consumer prices increased in line with economist estimates, core consumer prices rose slightly more than expected.

Stocks moved sharply lower as the data seemingly reduced the chances that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates by 50 basis points next week. But selling pressure waned dramatically over the course session as the Fed is still expected to continue lowering rates in the coming months.

Crude oil prices surged higher on Wednesday, recovering from a three-year low in the previous session thanks to fears of prolonged production shutdowns in the offshore oil patch due to Hurricane Francine. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended up by $1.56 or 2.37 percent at $67.31 a barrel.

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