BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The China stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 35 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,375-point plateau although it's looking at a soft start on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests caution ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SCI finished slightly higher on Thursday gains from the properties, weakness from the resource stocks and a mixed picture from the financial sector.
For the day, the index rose 7.90 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 3,384.10 after trading between 3,371.15 and 3,387.76. The Shenzhen Composite Index improved 10.52 points or 0.53 percent to end at 2,010.13.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China gained 0.14 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.55 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.70 percent, Bank of Communications eased 0.13 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.00 percent, Jiangxi Copper sank 0.86 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1.25 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.69 percent, China Shenhua Energy perked 0.03 percent, Gemdale was up 0.26 percent, Poly Developments added 0.24 percent, China Vanke rose 0.30 percent and Huaneng Power, PetroChina, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) and Agricultural Bank of China were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed but spent most of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finishing modestly under water.
The Dow dropped 108.00 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 42,319.74, while the NASDAQ stumbled 162.04 points or 0.83 percent to close at 19,298.45 and the S&P 500 sank 31.51 points or 0.53 percent to end at 5,939.30.
Stocks saw some strength earlier in the day after President Donald Trump confirmed in a post on Truth Social that he had an approximately 90-minute phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.
The data could have a significant impact on the outlook for the economy following Wednesday's weaker than expected reports on private sector employment and service sector activity.
In the bond market, treasuries pulled into negative territory after seeing early strength. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.9 basis points to 4.394 percent, after hitting a nearly one-month intraday low of 4.318 percent.
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