China Shares May See Renewed Selling Pressure On Tuesday

The China stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had fallen almost 20 points or 0.6 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,125-point plateau although it may head south again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement later this week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the financial and energy companies were offset by weakness from the properties and resource stocks.

For the day, the index added 8.19 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 3,125.93 after trading between 3,098.50 and 3,128.70. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 10.36 points or 0.54 percent to end at 1,921.48.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.22 percent, while China Construction Bank collected 0.49 percent, China Merchants Bank perked 0.18 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 0.87 percent, Jiangxi Copper dropped 0.99 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) retreated 1.50 percent, Yankuang Energy rallied 2.19 percent, PetroChina sank 0.72 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) declined 1.31 percent, Huaneng Power stumbled 1.56 percent, China Shenhua Energy was up 0.19 percent, Gemdale skidded 1.11 percent, Poly Developments tumbled 1.72 percent, China Vanke slumped 0.82 percent and Bank of China and Bank of Communications were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Monday, bounced higher to spend most of the day in the green but faded late to end barely above the unchanged line.

The Dow added 6.06 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 34,624.30, while the NASDAQ rose 1.90 points or 0.01 percent to close at 13,710.24 and the S&P 500 perked 3.21 points or 0.07 percent to end at 4,453.53.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will pay close attention to the accompanying statement and the central bank’s projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing homebuilder confidence in the U.S. has unexpectedly deteriorated in September.

Oil futures settled higher on Monday, rising for a third straight session on global supply issues and a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October rose $0.71 or 0.8 percent at $91.48 a barrel, the highest settlement this year.