Another Lower Open Predicted For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in five straight sessions, tumbling almost 1,400 points or 7.8 percent along the way. Now at a fresh 11-year low, the Hang Seng Index sits just above the 16,830-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets remains soft amidst uncertainty over interest rates and the health of the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian bourses are likely to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Wednesday as the financials, properties and technology stocks ended mostly in the red.

For the day, the index lost 131.33 points or 0.78 percent to finish at 16,701.03 after trading between 16,438.60 and 17,040.70.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group declined 2.17 percent, while Alibaba Health Info gained 0.56 percent, ANTA Sports dipped 0.48 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.51 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 2.58 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) weakened 1.18 percent, China Resources Land tumbled 2.40 percent, CITIC slumped 1.77 percent, CNOOC sank 1.03 percent, Country Garden plummeted 4.88 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical advanced 1.07 percent, Galaxy Entertainment plunged 2.78 percent, Hang Lung Properties added 0.62 percent, Henderson Land retreated 1.83 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas skidded 1.17 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slid 0.55 percent, JD.com strengthened 1.59 percent, Lenovo climbed 1.47 percent, Li Ning dropped 1.09 percent, Longfor fell 0.60 percent, Meituan lost 0.66 percent, New World Development stumbled 1.71 percent, Techtronic Industries surrendered 2.23 percent, Xiaomi Corporation shed 0.69 percent and WuXi Biologics jumped 1.62 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened lower, bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before a late slide saw them finish with mild losses.

The Dow shed 28.34 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 29,210.85, while the NASDAQ eased 9.09 points or 0.09 percent to close at 10,417.10 and the S&P 500 fell 11.81 points or 0.33 percent to end at 3,577.03.

The late downward push came after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its latest monetary policy meeting, which showed that members expect interest rates to remain high till prices come down.

The members also lowered their projections for the economy and expect GDP to grow at just a 0.2 percent annualized pace in 2022 and just 1.2 percent in 2023, well below trend and big drop from 2021, which saw the strongest gains since 1984.

Also, the Labor Department said the Producer Price Index for final demand in the U.S. increased by 0.4 percent month-over-month in September, rising for the first time in three months.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday, falling for a third straight session amid concerns about the outlook for demand due to slowing global growth after OPEC cut its demand forecast for this year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $2.02 or 2.26 percent at $87.33 a barrel.