BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The China stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 180 points or 6.2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,175-point plateau although it's due for a fall on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is roughly flat, with support from crude oil offset by expected profit taking. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
For the day, the index added 6.46 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 3,176.82 after trading between 3,164.91 and 3,193.27. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.93 points or 0.11 percent to end at 1,757.60.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China added 0.35 percent, while China Merchants Bank climbed 1.20 percent, China Construction Bank and China Life Insurance both collected 0.28 percent, Ping An Insurance rose 0.46 percent, PetroChina sank 0.39 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.51 percent, China Shenhua Energy lost 0.89 percent, Gemdale plummeted 2.48 percent, Poly Developments tumbled 1.57 percent, China Vanke fell 0.25 percent, CITIC Securities slid 0.32 percent and Bank of China was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as stocks showed a lack of direction Tuesday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before ending mixed and little changed.
The Dow shed 79.29 points or 0.30 percent to 26,179.13, while the NASDAQ added 19.78 points or 0.25 percent to 7,848.69 and the S&P 500 was up just 0.05 points to 2,867.24.
The choppy trading on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets, with traders looking for more concrete developments out of the U.S.-China trade talks.
In economic news, the Commerce Department reported a steep drop in durable goods orders in February. It also said orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched indicator of business spending, eased in February.
Crude oil futures ended higher Tuesday, extending gains to a third successive day ahead of weekly crude inventory data. West Texas Crude oil futures for May ended up $0.99 or 1.6 percent at $62.58 a barrel for the highest settlement since November.
Closer to home, China will on Wednesday see March results for the services and composite indexes from Caixin later this morning. In February, the services index had a score of 51.1 and the composite came in at 50.7.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2019 AFX News
