China Bourse May Be Stuck In Neutral On Friday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing almost 80 points or 2.1 percent on its way to another fresh seven-year high. The Shanghai Composite Index closed just above the 3,825-point plateau, and the market figures to hold steady in that neighborhood on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement, with many of the regional bourses closed ahead of Easter weekend. The European and U.S. markets were mixed but little changed, and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Thursday as gains from the technology stocks were tempered by profit taking among the financial shares.

For the day, the index gained 15.49 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 3,825.78 after trading between 3,775.89 and 3,835.45 on turnover of 632.0 billion yuan. The Shenzhen Composite Index surged 37.36 points or 1.86 percent to end at 2,043.03 on turnover of 583.1 billion yuan.

Among the actives, Anhui Wantong Technology and Nationz Technologies both surged by the 10 percent daily limit, while Ping An Bank shed 0.10 percent, China Pacific Insurance Group dropped 1.31 percent and China Merchants Securities tumbled 3.08 percent.

The lead from Wall Street provides little guidance as stocks fluctuated on Thursday but ended mostly higher ahead of the long holiday weekend. The gains partly offset the losses in the two previous sessions.

The Dow climbed 65.06 points or 0.4 percent to 17,763.24, while the NASDAQ edged up 6.71 points or 0.1 percent to 4,886.94 and the S&P 500 rose 7.27 points or 0.4 percent to 2,066.96. For the holiday-shortened week, the NASDAQ eased 0.1 percent, and the Dow and the S&P 500 both added 0.3 percent.

Traders reacted to the latest batch of U.S. economic data, including a Labor Department report showing that initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell to a two-month low in the week ended March 28.

Also, the Commerce Department noted that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed by more than anticipated in February - possibly leading analysts to raise their forecasts for first quarter GDP growth.

But activity was somewhat subdued ahead of today's monthly jobs report, which is being released even as the markets are closed for the Good Friday holiday.

Closer to home, China will see March results for the services and composite PMIs from HSBC later this morning. The services PMI had a score of 52.0 in February, while the composite was at 51.8.