BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The China stock market on Friday halted the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 100 points or 3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,310-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking expected following last week's election run in the United States, while varying earnings news and oil process may lend an air of volatility. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.
The SCI finished slightly lower on Friday following missed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and insurance companies.
For the day, the index fell 7.97 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 3,212.16 after trading between 3,292.15 and 3,326.46. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 17.78 points or 0.77 percent to end at 2282.09.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.20 percent, while Bank of China added 0.31 percent, China Construction Bank collected 0.47 percent, China Merchants Bank dropped 0.72 percent, Bank of Communications was up 0.22 percent, China Life Insurance plunged 3.42 percent, Ping An Insurance rallied 0.44 percent, PetroChina perked 0.24 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.51 percent, China Shenhua Energy soared 3.48 percent, Gemdale gathered 0.57 percent, Poly Developments jumped 1.51 percent, China Vanke spiked 0.72 percent, Beijing Capital Development lost 0.32 percent and China Minsheng Bank was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as stocks opened sharply lower on Friday but rallied to finish largely unchanged.
The Dow shed 66.80 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 28,323.40, while the NASDAQ rose 4.33 points or 0.04 percent to end at 11,895.23 and the S&P 500 eased 1.01 points or 0.03 percent to close at 3,509.44. For the week, The Dow jumped 6.9 percent, the NASDAQ surged 9 percent and the S&P spiked 7.1 percent.
The early weakness on Wall Street was partly due to profit taking following the strong upward move seen over the past several sessions.
The early selling pressure was offset by a closely watched report from the Labor Department showing stronger than expected job growth in October, while the jobless rate fell 1 percent.
The markets were also reacting to the continued uncertainty about the U.S. presidential election - although that was cleared up on Saturday when Democrat Joe Biden was projected as the winner.
Crude oil futures ended sharply lower on Friday, weighed down by rising concerns over outlook for energy demand due to the continued global surge in coronavirus cases. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $1.65 or 4.3 percent at $37.14 a barrel.
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