The China stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 70 points or 3.4 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,065-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets in negative, with continued pressure likely on the technology shares. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the properties and minerals were offset by support from the financials and oil companies.
For the day, the index dipped 8.96 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 3,065.26 after trading between 3,055.06 and 3,080.32. The Shenzhen Composite Index sank 12.36 points or 0.73 percent t finish at 1,686.56.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.54 percent, while Bank of China added 0.64 percent, China Construction Bank gained 0.68 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.09 percent, Bank of Communications improved 0.73 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.33 percent, Jiangxi Copper dropped 0.88 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) sank 0.82 percent, Yankuang Energy skidded 0.90 percent, PetroChina rallied 2.82 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.99 percent, Huaneng Power shed 0.52 percent, China Shenhua Energy strengthened 1.28 percent, Gemdale declined 1.23 percent, Poly Developments slumped 0.98 percent and China Vanke plunged 2.62 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is conflicted as the Dow opened higher on Friday and stayed that way, while the S&P and NASDAQ spent the entire session under water.
The Dow rallied 211.00 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 37,986.40, while the NASDAQ tumbled 319.49 points or 2.05 percent to end at 15,282.01 and the S&P 500 sank 43.89 points or 0.88 percent to close at 4,967.23.
For the week, the NASDAQ plummeted 5.5 percent, the S&P tumbled 3.1 percent and the Dow rose 0.1 percent.
The steep drop by the NASDAQ reflected heavy selling among shares of Netflix (NFLX) and AI darling Nvidia (NVDA). Reflecting the weakness in the sector, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dove by 4.1 percent to its lowest closing level since early February.
Banking stocks turned in a strong performance, driving the KBW Bank Index up by 2.9 percent. Interest rate-sensitive utilities stocks also moved notably higher amid a pullback by treasury yields, resulting in a 1.8 percent jump by the Dow Jones Utility Average.
Oil prices moved higher on Friday as geopolitical tensions rose following Israel's retaliatory attack on Iran. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.41 at $83.14 a barrel, although WTI crude futures shed about 3 percent in the week.
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