Soft Start Seen For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Thursday ended the two-day wining streak in which it had gained more than 65 points or 1.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 4,150-point plateau and it's likely to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh. 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 barely lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, resource stocks, oil companies and properties.

For the day, the index dipped 0.60 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 4,146.63 after trading between 4,127.15 and 4,152.19. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 8.97 points or 0.33 percent to end at 2,755.22.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Jiangxi Copper both slumped 1.28 percent, while Bank of China fell 0.38 percent, Agricultural Bank of China declined 1.38 percent, China Merchants Bank dipped 0.21 percent, Bank of Communications shed 0.60 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 2.40 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) lost 0.52 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1.22 percent, PetroChina dropped 0.91 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) was down 0.46 percent, Huaneng Power jumped 1.58 percent, China Shenhua Energy sank 0.83 percent, Gemdale plummeted 4.96 percent, Poly Developments stumbled 2.73 percent and China Vanke plunged 3.60 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but trended lower throughout the day, finally ending on opposite sides of the line.

The Dow perked 17.05 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 49,499.20, while the NASDAQ tumbled 273.70 points or 1.18 percent to end at 22,878.38 and the S&P 500 lost 37.27 points or 0.54 percent to close at 6,908.86.

The pullback on Wall Street came amid a negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), even though the company reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter results and provided upbeat guidance.

Networking stocks also showed a notable move to the downside, contributing to the slump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

Crude oil prices saw early strength Thursday on Mideast tensions but couldn't hold the gains after progress was reported in talks between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was down by $0.11 or 0.2 percent at $65.31 barrel.