Losing Streak May Continue For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, slumping more than 1,050 points or 4.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 23,770-point plateau and it's likely to see another soft start again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower amid weakness from technology shares and concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to lower and the Asian bourses figure to also open to the downside.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower again on Monday following losses from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index stumbled 156.29 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 23,768.52 after trading between 23,444.86 and 23,863.71.

Among the actives, AIA and Hong Kong Exchange both added 0.75 percent, while Alibaba Group tumbled 1.91 percent, Baidu plunged 2.69 percent, BOC Hong Kong slumped 1.12 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.35 percent, China Life Insurance surged 7.99 percent, China Merchants Bank skidded 1.02 percent, China Mobile and CITIC both dropped 0.81 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical rose 0.48 percent, China Shenhua Energy gained 0.57 percent, CNOOC sank 0.80 percent, HSBC shed 0.74 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.44 percent, JD.com declined 1.29 percent, Lenovo Group tanked 2.02 percent, Meituan perked 0.28 percent, NetEase dipped 0.16 percent, Nongfu Spring fell 0.33 percent, PetroChina eased 0.22 percent, Ping An Insurance rallied 2.04 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing spiked 3.14 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties advanced 0.80 percent, Tencent Holdings retreated 1.64 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plunged 3.50 percent, WuXi AppTec soared 3.19 percent, Zijin Mining contracted 1.43 percent and Bank of China was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened slightly higher but quickly headed south before finishing mixed.

The Dow climbed 148.01 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 51,712.71, while the NASDAQ tumbled 351.33 points or 1.32 percent to close at 26,166.60 and the S&P 500 sank 27.79 points or 0.37 percent to end at 7,472.79.

The slump by the NASDAQ came amid weakness among technology stocks, with shares of SpaceX (SPCX) plummeting by 16.4 percent. An increase by treasury yields weighed on tech stocks, as the yield on the two-year note reaches its highest levels in over a year.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates drove yields higher ahead of the release of key inflation data later in the week.

Traders seem worried that an acceleration in the pace of inflation as a result of President Donald Trump's war with Iran could lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates later this year.

Crude oil prices plunged on Monday even though the Iranian military says it has again closed off the Strait of Hormuz, although there are reports of commercial vessels are operating freely in the strait. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $1.63 or 2.13 percent at $74.97 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide May data for consumer prices later today; in April, overall inflation was down 0.1 percent on month and up 1.7 percent on year.