BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for the New Year, the China stock market has climbed higher in back-to-back sessions, collecting more than 40 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,640-point plateau and it's tipped to see additional support again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, supported by oil and technology shares - while concerns over the surging Omicron variant of the coronavirus is likely to cap the upside. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SCI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the properties and energy producers, while the financials were mixed.
For the day, the index improved 20.59 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 3,639.78 after trading between 3,624.94 and 3,642.84.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slipped 0.22 percent, while China Construction Bank eased 0.17 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.43 percent, Bank of Communications rose 0.22 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.30 percent, Jiangxi Copper added 0.36 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) dropped 0.98 percent, Yankuang Energy advanced 0.81 percent, PetroChina perked 0.20 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) increased 0.24 percent, Huaneng Power soared 3.97 percent, China Shenhua Energy rallied 2.64 percent, Gemdale skyrocketed 5.62 percent, Poly Developments surged 3.51 percent, China Vanke spiked 3.35 percent, China Fortune Land improved 0.84 percent and Bank of China and China Minsheng Bank were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Monday and generally picked up steam as the session progressed.
The Dow spiked 246.76 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 36,585.06, while the NASDAQ jumped 187.83 points or 1.20 percent to close at 15,832.80 and the S&P 500 gained 30.38 points or 0.64 percent to end at 4,796.56.
The rally on Wall Street came as optimism about growth outweighed concerns about the Omicron variant in several countries, including the U.S.
But activity was somewhat subdued with investors looking ahead to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's December monetary policy meeting later this week.
In economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. construction spending increased 0.4 percent in November amid strong gains in single-family homebuilding, although outlays on public projects were weak.
Crude oil prices climbed higher on Monday on reports that Libya, one of OPEC's more important oil drillers, will likely lose about 200,000 barrels daily in output over the next week because of a damaged pipeline. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended up by $0.87 or 1.2 percent at $76.08 a barrel.
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