(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, tumbling more than 90 points or 2.2 percent in that span. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 4,075-point plateau although it may halt its slide on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SCI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the property, oil and resource sectors, while the financial shares came in mixed.
For the day, the index plunged 84.91 points or 2.04 percent to finish at 4,077.28 after trading between 4,074.22 and 4,199.53. The Shenzhen Composite Index tumbled 68.80 points or 2.40 percent to end at 2,800.37.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.28 percent, while Bank of China retreated 1.21 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.77 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.05 percent, Bank of Communications climbed 1.07 percent, China Life Insurance declined 1.42 percent, Jiangxi Copper tanked 3.29 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) contracted 1.45 percent, Yankuang Energy plunged 5.00 percent, PetroChina tumbled 2.92 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dropped 1.37 percent, Huaneng Power surrendered 2.01 percent, China Shenhua Energy slumped 1.61 percent, Gemdale crashed 4.29 percent, Poly Developments stumbled 3.45 percent and China Vanke cratered 3.61 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages spent the first half of Thursday in the red before bouncing firmly into positive territory, ending near daily highs.
The Dow climbed 276.31 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 50,285.66, while the NASDAQ added 22.74 points or 0.09 percent to end at 26,293.10 and the S&P 500 rose 12.75 points or 0.17 percent to close at 7,445.72.
The initial pullback on Wall Street came amid a substantial rebound by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures surging as much as 4.5 percent after plummeting by 5.7 percent on Wednesday.
Unable to hold those early gains, crude oil prices turned lower over the course of trading on Thursday as investors watched developments in the U.S.-Iran peace talks. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $1.41 or 1.43 percent at $96.85 per barrel.
Meanwhile, traders seemed to shrug off the negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), although the AI leader still slumped by 1.8 percent.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
