Lower Open Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of 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 26,350 point plateau and it's tipped to open to in the red again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on surging oil prices and weakness among technology stocks. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets also figure to open to the downside.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the insurance companies, gains from the banks and a mixed picture from the technology companies.

For the day, the index slumped 58.93 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 26,347.91 after trading between 26,328.84 and 26,592.37.

Among the actives, AIA dipped 0.17 percent, while Alibaba Group shed 0.45 percent, Baidu dropped 0.85 percent, Bank of China climbed 1.35 percent, BOC Hong Kong gained 0.39 percent, China Construction Bank collected 0.68 percent, China Life Insurance plunged 2.55 percent, China Merchants Bank perked 0.13 percent, China Mobile gathered 0.35 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical increased 0.43 percent, China Shenhua Energy added 0.40 percent, CITIC fell 0.36 percent, CNOOC advanced 1.20 percent, Hong Kong Exchange lost 0.38 percent, HSBC tumbled 1.84 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China improved 1.00 percent, JD.com and Ping An Insurance both eased 0.08 percent, Meituan slipped 0.24 percent, NetEase jumped 1.81 percent, PetroChina rallied 3.95 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties cratered 2.44 percent, Tencent Holdings slumped 1.55 percent, Xiaomi Corporation sank 0.76 percent, WuXi AppTec rose 0.36 percent, Zijin Mining vaulted 1.75 percent and Nongfu Spring and Semiconductor Manufacturing were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but trended higher as the session progressed, with the Dow finally peaking into positive territory by the day's end.

The Dow rose 56.09 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 49,760.56, while the NASDAQ sank 185.92 points or 0.71 percent to end at 26,088.20 and the S&P 500 dipped 11.88 points or 0.16 percent to close at 7,400.96.

An extended surge by the price of crude oil contributed to the early sell-off on Wall Street, with U.S. crude oil futures soaring by more than 4 percent and jumping back above $100 a barrel.

The continued increase by the price of crude oil comes as the U.S. and Iran struggle to reach an agreement to end the war and reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.

The weakness on Wall Street also came following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing the fastest annual rate of consumer price growth since May 2023 - making any rate cuts in the near future extremely unlikely.