BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival, the China stock market had halted the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 30 points or 0.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,590-point plateau and it may take further damage on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky ahead the FOMC decision and statement later this week. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.
The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financials, gains from the resource stocks and a mixed picture from the property sector.
For the day, the index sank 21.11 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 3,589.75 after trading between 3,587.15 and 3,614.40. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 14.65 points or 0.60 percent to end at 2,407.93.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eased 0.19 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.65 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.44 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.04 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 3.87 percent, Jiangxi Copper climbed 1.61 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surged 6.03 percent, Yanzhou Coal dipped 0.20 percent, PetroChina soared 5.70 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.75 percent, China Shenhua Energy advanced 0.73 percent, Gemdale fell 0.47 percent, Poly Developments rose 0.15 percent, China Vanke retreated 1.40 percent, Beijing Capital Development was up 0.18 percent and Bank of Communications and Minsheng Bank were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the major averages opened Monday on opposite sides of the unchanged line and finished the same way.
The Dow shed 85.85 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 34,393.75, while the NASDAQ climbed 104.72 points or 0.74 percent to end at 14,174.14 and the S&P 500 rose 7.71 points or 0.18 percent to close at 4,255.15.
The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.
The Fed is widely expected to leave its monetary policy unchanged, but traders will be looking for any clues the central bank is considering tapering its asset purchases.
Last week's Labor Department report showed consumer price inflation reached the highest level in nearly thirteen years last month, although Fed officials have repeatedly downplayed the risks of prolonged inflation.
Crude oil futures ended slightly lower Monday on news that the next phase of England's lockdown reopening will be delayed due to a surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $0.03 or 0.04 percent at $70.88 a barrel.
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