Additional Support Expected For China Stock Market

The China stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, rising more than 45 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just shy of the 3,410-point plateau and it's expected to open in the green again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on optimism for a coronavirus vaccine. The European and U.S. markets were up on Friday and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index jumped 38.57 points or 1.14 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,408.31 after trading as low as 3,364.49. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 7.65 points or 0.34 percent to end at 2,253.12.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China soared 5.89 percent, while Bank of China accelerated 2.46 percent, China Construction Bank rallied 4.30 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 1.69 percent, Bank of Communications spiked 2.59 percent, China Life Insurance jumped 1.95 percent, Ping An Insurance advanced 1.07 percent, Jiangxi Copper improved 1.36 percent, Yanzhou Coal gained 0.53 percent, PetroChina rose 0.23 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) added 0.47 percent, China Shenhua Energy climbed 1.79 percent, Gemdale gathered 1.42 percent, Poly Developments perked 3.02 percent, China Vanke increased 2.17 percent and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as stocks opened higher on Friday and stayed mostly in the green throughout the shortened session, although the Dow slipped briefly into the red before rebounding.

The Dow rose 37.90 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 29.910.37, while the NASDAQ climbed 111.44 points or 0.92 percent to 12,205.85 and the S&P 500 added 8.70 points or 0.24 percent to close at 3,638.35. For the week, the Dow added 2.2 percent, the NASDAQ gained 3 percent and the S&P rose 2.3 percent.

Optimism about a potential coronavirus vaccine has contributed to recent strength on Wall Street, although some questions have been raised about the efficacy of the vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

Nonetheless, overall trading activity was subdued in the shortened trading session, as many traders remained away from their desks following Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Friday but still managed to post a strong weekly gain. Rising optimism about coronavirus vaccine raised hopes that global energy demand will pick up and lifted crude oil prices in recent sessions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.18 or 0.4 percent at $45.53 a barrel. WTI crude oil futures gained 8 percent for the week.

Closer to home, China will see November numbers for its manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs later this morning; in October, the manufacturing PMI had a score of 51.4 and the non-manufacturing PMI came in at 56.2.