Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing almost 50 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,920-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were soft and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the financial shares were offset by weakness from the properties and energy companies. For the day, the index gained 21.27 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 3,924.08 after trading between 3,904.74 and 3,936.31. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 30.04 points or 1.22 percent to end at 2,498.92. Among the actives, Bank of China gained 0.34 percent, while Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.26 percent, China Merchants Bank lost 0.62 percent, Bank of Communications added 0.54 percent, China Life Insurance rose 0.24 percent, Jiangxi Copper rallied 3.28 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) and Huaneng Power both skidded 1.14 percent, Yankuang Energy tanked 2.66 percent, PetroChina shed 0.51 percent, China Shenhua Energy and Gemdale both retreated 1.52 percent, Poly Developments fell 0.31 percent, China Vanke dropped 0.81 percent and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the session well under water.

The Dow dropped 215.67 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 47,739.32, while the NASDAQ sank 32.22 points or 0.14 percent to close at 23,545.90 and the S&P 500 fell 23.89 points or 0.35 percent to end at 6,846.51.

The modest pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking following recent strength in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and S&P 500 reach their best closing levels in a month last Friday.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

With the Fed widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts next year.

Crude oil prices slumped on Monday as the U.S. dollar strengthened ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, which has largely been priced in. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $1.28 or 2.13 percent at $58.80 per barrel.