PEKING (dpa-AFX) - The China stock market has finished lower now in back-to-back sessions, retreating more than 20 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index finished just above the 2,790-point plateau, and now analysts are forecasting renewed support when the market opens on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive following much better than expected economic data out of the United States. Technology stocks are likely to fuel the rally, along with retail, steel, finance and oil companies - although some money may be taken off the table ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs report. The European and U.S. markets finished firmly in the green, and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.
The SCI finished modestly lower on Thursday, pushed into negative territory by losses from the property stocks and financial shares.
For the day, the index shed 16.21 points or 0.6 percent to finish at 2794.27 after trading between 2,793.89 and 2,825.12. The Shenzhen Composite Index added 1.74 points or 0.1 percent to end at 1,202.32.
Among the decliners, China Vanke shed 0.6 percent, while Cofco Property lost 1.0 percent, Shenzhen Heungkong fell 1.1 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 1.4 percent, Bank of China eased 0.3 percent and Agricultural Bank of China retreated 1.1 percent.
Wall Street puts forth a strong lead as stocks saw considerable strength on Thursday, as the release of upbeat jobs data offset some of the recent concerns about the strength of the labor market. The markets extended the recent move to the upside, offsetting much of the weakness seen in May and early June.
The upside followed the release of a report from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing showing a much bigger than expected increase in private sector employment in the month of June. Private sector employment added 157,000 jobs in June following a downwardly revised increase of 36,000 jobs in May. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 60,000 jobs compared to the addition of 38,000 jobs originally reported in May.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims fell by more than expected in the week ended July 2nd, although claims remained above the key 400,000 level.
The data generated some optimism about the Labor Department's monthly employment report, which is due to be released on Friday. The report is currently expected to show that employment rose by about 110,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 9.1 percent.
The major averages gave back some ground going into the close but still ended the day firmly positive. The Dow rose 93.55 points or 0.8 percent to 12,719.57, the NASDAQ jumped 38.64 points or 1.4 percent to 2,872.66 and the S&P 500 advanced 14.00 points or 1.1 percent to 1,353.22.
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© 2011 AFX News
