BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The China stock market has finished higher in consecutive trading days, collecting more than 30 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,535-point plateau and it's expected to hold steady at the mark on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly directionless amidst a lack of catalysts, with oil and biotechnology stocks likely to fall under pressure. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.
The SCI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial, resource and property stocks.
For the day, the index added 17.65 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 3,534.48 after trading between 3,518.23 and 3,536.01. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 7.63 points or 0.36 percent to end at 2,153.71.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China gained 0.26 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.35 percent, Agricultural Bank of China spiked 1.47 percent, China Merchants Bank was up 0.11 percent, Bank of Communications increased 0.75 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.95 percent, Jiangxi Copper accelerated 1.73 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 1.40 percent, Yankuang Energy advanced 0.82 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.57 percent, Huaneng Power strengthened 1.30 percent, China Shenhua Energy improved 0.73 percent, Poly Developments rose 0.38 percent, China Vanke perked 0.15 percent and Gemdale and PetroChina were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly turned lower before ending mixed and little changed.
The Dow shed 142.31 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 44,342.19, while the NASDAQ rose 10.06 points or 0.05 percent to close at 20,895.66 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,296.79.
For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.5 percent the S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent and the Dow dipped 0.1 percent.
The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came on profit taking after the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs at the open.
The pullback came amid a slump by shares of Netflix (NFLX), after the company reported better than expected second quarter results but warned its operating margin in the second half will be lower than the first half.
Crude oil prices turned lower on Friday after OPEC's demand forecast prompted concerns of a production surplus. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery closed down by $0.20 at $67.34 per barrel.
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