China Shares May See Additional Support

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 120 points or 3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 4,080-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets continues to be positive, despite several of the regional bourses already at record closing highs. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to at least open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the resource and property sectors, while the financials shares were soft.

For the day, the index vaulted 60.25 points or 1.50 percent to finish at the daily high of 4,083.67 after trading as low as 4,025.09. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 36.25 points or 1.40 percent to end at 2,617.77.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China lost 0.26 percent, while Bank of China slumped 1.41 percent, Agricultural Bank of China dipped 0.13 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.90 percent, Bank of Communications sank 0.69 percent, China Life Insurance climbed 2.90 percent, Jiangxi Copper surged 4.92 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) skyrocketed 7.30 percent, Yankuang Energy soared 2.42 percent, PetroChina rallied 1.99 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) expanded 1.48 percent, Huaneng Power rose 0.27 percent, China Shenhua Energy strengthened 1.29 percent, Gemdale jumped 1.92 percent, Poly Developments accelerated 2.53 percent and China Vanke vaulted 1.68 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened in the green on Tuesday and trended higher through the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 484.90 points or 0.99 percent to finish at a record high 49,462.08, while the NASDAQ climbed 151.35 points or 0.65 percent to end at 23,547.17 and the S&P 500 gained 42.77 points or 0.62 percent to close at 6,944.82, also a record.

The Dow benefitted from a sharp increase by shares of Amazon (AMZN) after it announced it is rolling out Alexa.com to Alexa+ Early Access customers in what is seen as an effort to more directly compete with ChatGPT and Gemini.

The continued advance by the broader markets came despite a lack of major catalysts, as traders look ahead to the release of several key U.S. economic reports in the coming days.

The highlight of the week may be the Labor Department's monthly jobs report on Friday. That data could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Tuesday as investors booked profits while analyzing the consequences of Saturday's swift U.S. military operation in Venezuela on global oil supply. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was down $1.11 or 1.90 percent at $57.21 per barrel.