The China stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the three-day slide in which it had dropped almost 130 points or 3.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,510-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower thanks to downward pressure on crude oil, while profit taking may also be on the docket. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The SCI finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the financials, properties and resource stocks.
For the day, the index dropped 42.81 points or 1.21 percent to finish at 3,508.59 after trading between 3,485.36 and 3,566.85. The Shenzhen Composite Index sank 16.41 points or 0.70 percent to end at 2,332.76.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.94 percent, while Bank of China shed 0.62 percent, China Construction Bank tanked 3.03 percent, China Merchants Bank skidded 1.67 percent, Bank of Communications fell 0.44 percent, China Life Insurance rose 0.12 percent, Jiangxi Copper plunged 5.50 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) cratered 5.26 percent, Yanzhou Coal skyrocketed 9.00 percent, PetroChina sank 2.29 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) plummeted 4.16 percent, Baoshan Iron lost 0.62 percent, Anhui Conch Cement added 0.56 percent, Gemdale retreated 1.39 percent, Poly Developments slid 0.37 percent, China Vanke eased 0.18 percent and Beijing Capital Development was down 1.58 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained mostly in the red throughout the session.
The Dow dropped 143.99 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 31,391.52, while the NASDAQ tumbled 230.04 points or 1.69 percent to end at 13,358.79 and the S&P 500 lost 31.53 points or 0.81 percent to close at 3,870.29.
Profit taking contributed to the pullback on Wall Street, with some traders cashing in on the strong gains on Monday.
The weakness came despite a continued decrease by the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moved lower for the third straight session - easing concerns about the outlook for interest rates.
Crude oil prices drifted lower Tuesday ahead of the upcoming OPEC meeting that may see the group hike production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down $0.89 or 1.5 percent at $59.75 a barrel.
Closer to home, China will see February results for the services and composite indexes from Caixin later this morning; in January, their scores were 52.0 and 52.2, respectively.
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