The China stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, surrendering almost 60 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,780-point plateau and its likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. unemployment data on Friday. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The SCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and resource stocks, while the properties were mixed.
For the day, the index shed 18.70 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 2,784.28 after trading between 2,781.94 and 2,800.61. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 9.09 points or 0.59 percent to end at 1,521.64.
Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.87 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.42 percent, China Construction Bank fell 0.27 percent, China Merchants Bank sank 0.82 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.89 percent, China Life Insurance was down 1.23 percent, Jiangxi Copper tanked 3.27 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surrendered 3.22 percent, Yankuang Energy declined 1.45 percent, PetroChina plummeted 5.28 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) skidded 1.20 percent, Huaneng Power slumped 1.17 percent, China Shenhua Energy weakened 1.29 percent, Gemdale climbed 1.06 percent, Poly Developments stumbled 2.41 percent and China Vanke shed 0.92 percent.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday, hugged the line for most of the day and finished mixed and little changed.
The Dow added 38.04 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 40,974.97, while the NASDAQ lost 52.00 points or 0.30 percent to close at 17,084.30 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.86 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,520.07.
The lackluster performance on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following the substantial volatility seen over the past couple months.
Stocks have shown a substantial rebound or late, but are hampered by lingering concerns about the outlook for the economy.
Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday amid rising concerns about the outlook for demand following reports that OPEC is planning to restore 180,000 barrels per day of voluntary production cuts beginning next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.14 or 1.6 percent at 69.20 a barrel, a nine-month low.