China Bourse Tipped To Open In The Red

The China stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sliding more than 230 points or 6.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,210-point plateau and it's looking at a soft lead for Friday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on economic growth concerns and coronavirus fears. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Thursday with damage across the board - especially from the financials, properties and oil and insurance companies.

For the day, the index plummeted 151.21 points or 4.50 percent to finish at 3,210.10 after trading between 3,209.73 and 3,373.53. The Shenzhen Composite Index plunged 117.55 points or 5.20 percent to end at 2,144.25.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.39 percent, while Bank of China dropped 0.87 percent, China Construction Bank eased 0.16 percent, China Merchants Bank sank 0.73 percent, China Life Insurance plunged 9.96 percent, Ping An Insurance tumbled 2.49 percent, PetroChina declined 1.78 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) retreated 1.73 percent, Baoshan Iron surrendered 3.12 percent, Gemdale skidded 1.42 percent, Poly Developments lost 1.88 percent and China Vanke tanked 2.62 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks opened in the red on Thursday and remained there throughout the session.

The Dow shed 135.39 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 26,734.71, while the NASDAQ lost 76.66 points or 0.73 percent to end at 10,473.83 and the S&P 500 fell 10.99 points or 0.34 percent to close at 3,215.57.

The weakness on Wall Street followed the release of a Labor Department report showing the decline in first-time claims for unemployment benefits nearly ground to a halt last week.

The negative sentiment was partly offset by a Commerce Department report showing another substantial increase in retail sales in June, although the data was seen as old news as some states rolled back their reopening plans due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday on worries about the outlook for near term energy demand after OPEC decided to start tapering production cuts beginning next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August were down $0.45 or 1.1 percent at $40.75 a barrel.