Hong Kong Shares May See Renewed Support

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Friday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 770 points or 2.8 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 26,400 point plateau although it's expected to reverse those losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on strong employment data from the United States. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are expected to move mostly higher.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Friday as the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies were mostly in the red.

For the day, the index sank 232.57 points or 0.87 percent to finish at 26,393.71 after trading between 26,274.80 and 26,470.49.

Among the actives, AIA plunged 2.86 percent, while Alibaba Group and China Construction Bank both tumbled 1.35 percent, Baidu surged 5.75 percent, Bank of China lost 0.58 percent, BOC Hong Kong and NetEase both contracted 1.13 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.26 percent, China Merchants Bank declined 1.21 percent, China Mobile rose 0.18 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical, China Shenhua Energy stumbled 1.49 percent, CITIC slumped 1.02 percent, CNOOC perked 0.08 percent, Hong Kong Exchange sank 0.66 percent, HSBC crashed 3.07 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 1.00 percent, JD.com fell 0.42 percent, Meituan dipped 0.24 percent, Nongfu Spring tanked 1.91 percent, PetroChina and BYD both dropped 0.94 percent, Ping An Insurance shed 0.61 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing plummeted 4.43 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties surrendered 1.74 percent, Tencent Holdings retreated 1.26 percent, Xiaomi Corporation jumped 1.80 percent, WuXi AppTec cratered 3.36 percent and Zijin Mining advanced 0.89 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and largely stayed that way, although the Dow spent the ay bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,609.16, while the NASDAQ rallied 440.88 points or 1.71 percent to end at 26,247.08 and the S&P 500 gained 61.82 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,398.93.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent and the Dow crept up 0.2 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected U.S. job growth in April.

The data helped ease concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East even after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil prices inched higher Friday as Middle East tensions renewed between the U.S. and Iran. Iran is also delaying its response to a U.S. peace proposal, adding to the uncertainty. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $0.36 or 0.36 percent at $95.17 per barrel.