BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The China stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after it had ended the three-day slide in which it had fallen almost 75 points or 2.1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,345-point plateau and it has a fairly flat lead for Monday's trade.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, thanks to a combination of coronavirus concerns, coronavirus vaccines and expected profit taking. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the financials, properties and resource stocks were mitigated by support from the oil companies.
For the day, the index sank 26.09 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 3,347.19 after trading between 3,325.17 and 3,383.18. The Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 29.49 points or 1.31 percent to end at 2,223.94.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.40 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.31 percent, China Construction Bank skidded 1.37 percent, China Merchants Bank plunged 3.61 percent, Bank of Communications lost 0.66 percent, China Minsheng Bank surrendered 2.08 percent, China Life Insurance tumbled 1.85 percent, Ping An Insurance sank 1.80 percent, Jiangxi Copper plummeted 2.83 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 2.63 percent, Yanzhou Coal was down 1.92 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.72 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 1.48 percent, China Shenhua Energy added 0.49 percent, Gemdale tanked 1.85 percent, Poly Developments retreated 1.42 percent, China Vanke fell 0.42 percent and Beijing Capital was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as stocks opened lower on Friday and saw limited movement but managed to finish mixed for the second straight day.
The Dow added 47.07 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 30.046.37, while the NASDAQ fell 27.93 points or 0.23 percent to end at 12,377.87 and the S&P 500 eased 4.64 points or 0.13 percent to close at 3,663.46. For the week, the Dow fell 0.6 percent, the NASDAQ lost 0.7 percent and the S&P was down 1 percent.
The uptick by the Dow was partly due to a strong gain by shares of Disney (DIS), which spiked 13.5 percent after the company forecast strong subscriber growth for Disney+ and announced an increase in the price of the streaming service.
The lower close by the broader NASDAQ and S&P 500 came as lawmakers in Washington remain at an impasse over a new fiscal stimulus bill. The Senate managed to pass a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, but the lack of a breakthrough on a new relief package has raised concerns among traders.
Selling pressure was relatively subdued, however, as traders also reacted to upbeat news regarding a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX).
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Friday as a surge in coronavirus cases and tighter restrictions on businesses raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.21 or 0.5 percent at $46.57 a barrel.
Closer to home, China will provide November numbers for house prices later today; in October, prices were up 4.3 percent on year.
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