Hong Kong Shares May See Renewed Support

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the long break for Easter, the Hong Kong stock market had ended the two-day winning streak in which it had rallied almost 550 points or 2.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 25,100-point plateau although it may bounce higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement as the world waits for developments in the Middle East. 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 Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the technology and insurance companies and properties, gains from the oil stocks and mixed a performance from the financial sector.

For the day, the index slumped 177.50 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 25,116.53 after trading between 24,901.77 and 25,254.49.

Among the actives, AIA declined 1.54 percent, while Alibaba Group tanked 3.42 percent, Baidu shed 0.73 percent, Bank of China collected 1.00 percent, BOC Hong Kong weakened 1.28 percent, China Construction Bank gained 0.48 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 0.79 percent, China Merchants Bank spiked 1.18 percent, China Mobile rose 0.31 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical and CNOOC both perked 0.22 percent, China Shenhua Energy added 0.60 percent, CITIC gathered 0.25 percent, Hong Kong Exchange slumped 1.10 percent, HSBC dipped 0.23 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rallied 1.16 percent, JD.com skidded 0.89 percent, Meituan stumbled 2.07 percent, NetEase sank 0.74 percent, Nongfu Spring fell 0.54 percent, PetroChina surged 2.09 percent, Ping An Insurance lost 0.66 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing plunged 3.50 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties surrendered 2.67 percent, Tencent Holdings contracted 1.49 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plummeted 3.56 percent, WuXi AppTec advanced 0.81 percent and Zijin Mining tumbled 2.97 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity s the major averages spent most of Tuesday well under water before a late push saw them end mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 85.42 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 46,584.46, while the NASDAQ rose 21.51 points or 0.10 percent to close at 22,017.85 and the S&P 500 perked 5.02 points or 0.08 percent to end at 6,616.85.

Stocks showed a notable move to the upside late in the trading day after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on President Donald Trump to extend his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by two weeks to "allow diplomacy to run its course."

Trump had earlier threatened to attack Iran's power plants and bridges if Tehran fails to reach a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8 pm ET.

Crude oil prices have inched higher on Tuesday as Iran remains unresponsive to U.S. threats to open up the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up $0.65 or 0.58 percent at $113.06 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see March results for its private sector PMI from S&P Global later this morning; in February, the index score was 53.3.