Win Streak May Continue For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 50 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,990-point plateau and it's likely to see additional support on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European and U.S. markets finished slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks. For the day, the index advanced 27.33 points or 0.92 percent to finish at 2,994.73 after trading between 2,961.86 and 2,996.41. Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Jiangxi Copper both rallied 2.11 percent, while Agricultural Bank of China jumped 1.83 percent, China Construction Bank accelerated 2.30 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.50 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) soared 3.67 percent, PetroChina climbed 1.07 percent, Gemdale skyrocketed 7.06 percent, Poly Developments surged 6.28 percent and China Vanke spiked 5.19 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the markets opened slightly higher on Monday and hugged the line for much of the day before moving firmly into the green by the close.

The Dow added 50.66 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 39,169.52, while the NASDAQ rallied 146.70 points or 0.83 percent to end at 17,879.30 and the S&P 500 gained 14.61 points or 0.27 percent to close at 5,475.09.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders look ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday. The report, which is expected to show a slowdown in the pace of job growth in June, could impact the outlook for interest rates.

Traders may also be sticking to the sidelines ahead of remarks by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday as well as the Independence Day holiday on Thursday.

On the U.S. economic front, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing manufacturing activity in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted at a slightly faster rate in June. Also, the Commerce Department noted a slight decrease in U.S. construction spending in May.

Oil prices rose sharply on Monday, on expectations of higher demand, supply concerns and production cuts by OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $1.84 or about 2.2 percent at $83.38 a barrel.