(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Monday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 40 points or 1.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite now sits just above the 3,400-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on weakness from the technology stocks and ahead of key U.S. inflation data later in the week. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SCI finished barely lower on Monday as losses from the properties were mitigated by support from the energy companies and a mixed picture from the financial sector.
For the day, the index dipped 1.54 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 3,402.53 after trading between 3,385.96 and 3,426.65. The Shenzhen Composite Index slipped 7.32 points or 0.35 percent to end at 2,057.32.
Among the actives, Bank of China advanced 0.98 percent, while China Construction Bank fell 0.24 percent, Agricultural Bank of China strengthened 1.21 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.71 percent, Jiangxi Copper shed 0.42 percent, Yankuang Energy added 0.54 percent, PetroChina rallied 1.32 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 0.94 percent, Huaneng Power improved 0.84 percent, China Shenhua Energy rose 0.38 percent, Gemdale plummeted 4.63 percent, Poly Developments tanked 2.76 percent, China Vanke plunged 3.00 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but quickly fell into the red and stayed that way for the balance of the session.
The Dow dropped 240.59 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 44,401.93, while the NASDAQ slumped 123.0.8 points or 0.62 percent to end at 19,736.69 and the S&P 500 sank 37.42 points or 0.61 percent to close at 6,052.85.
A slump by shares of Nvidia (NVDA) weighed on the markets, with the AI darling tumbling by 2.6 percent amid news a Chinese regulator has launched an investigation into whether the chipmaker violated antimonopoly laws.
The weakness on Wall Street also came as traders looked ahead to the release of closely watched U.S. inflation data later in the week.
While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower rates by another 25 basis points next week, there is some uncertainty about whether the central bank will continue cutting rates next year.
Oil prices climbed higher on geopolitical tensions and optimism that the Chinese central bank will loosen its monetary policy to boost economic growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.17 or 1.74 percent at $68.37 a barrel.
Closer to home, China will release November numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in October, imports were down 2.3 percent on year and exports climbed an annual 12.7 percent for a trade surplus of $95.72 billion.
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