The China stock market on Monday halted the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 20 points or 0.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,500-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian is murky, with weakness from crude oil prices tempered by support from technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.
The SCI finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the property stocks and financial shares, although the resource companies were soft.
For the day, the index climbed 36.41 points or 1.05 percent to finish at 3,494.63 after trading between 3,438.70 and 3,502.84.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.44 percent, while China Construction Bank climbed 1.06 percent, China Merchants Bank spiked 3.09 percent, Bank of Communications added 0.47 percent, Pin An Insurance rallied 2.70 percent, Jiangxi Copper skidded 1.25 percent, Yanzhou Coal retreated 1.54 percent, PetroChina dipped 0.22 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) advanced 0.76 percent, China Shenhua Energy rose 0.34 percent, Gemdale skyrocketed 8.84 percent, Poly Developments surged 7.53 percent and China Vanke soared 5.59 percent.
The lead from Wall Street continues to be incongruous as the major averages opened lower on Monday; the NASDAQ quickly broke modestly into the green, while the Dow and the S&P 500 remained negative throughout.
The Dow shed 106.99 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 35,101.52, while the NASDAQ rose 24.42 points or 0.16 percent to close at 14,860.18 and the S&P 500 fell 4.16 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,432.36.
Stocks continued to turn in a mixed performance following last Friday's better than expected U.S. jobs data. The closely watched report from the Labor Department added to economic optimism but also raised concerns about the outlook for monetary policy.
Gold stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plunging by 2.6 percent. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid another steep drop by the price of the precious metal, as gold for December delivery plummeted $36.60 to $1,726.50 an ounce.
Crude oil prices declined sharply on Monday amid concerns about outlook for energy demand after China imposed travel curbs at many places in the country, aiming to halt the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.80 or 2.6 percent at $66.48 a barrel.
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