Bargain Hunting May Boost Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, sinking more than 550 points or 3.2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 17,350-point plateau although it's due for support on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, oil companies and properties, while the technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index stumbled 170.92 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 17,303.82 and 17,541.48.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group plunged 2.30 percent, while Alibaba Health Info added 0.22 percent, ANTA Sports stumbled 1.17 percent, China Life Insurance dipped 0.37 percent, China Mengniu Dairy declined 1.78 percent, China Resources Land dropped 0.84 percent, CITIC sank 0.81 percent, CNOOC lost 0.62 percent, Country Garden surrendered 2.11 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical surged 3.34 percent, Galaxy Entertainment retreated 1.63 percent, Hang Lung Properties shed 0.72 percent, Henderson Land and Li Ning both slid 0.45 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas tumbled 2.00 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.53 percent, JD.com tanked 2.17 percent, Lenovo rallied 1.04 percent, Meituan plummeted 5.16 percent, New World Development skidded 0.97 percent, Techtronic Industries spiked 1.44 percent, Xiaomi Corporation soared 2.51 percent and WuXi Biologics slumped 1.09 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and spent much of the day bouncing back and forth across the line before ending modestly higher.

The Dow gained 83.51 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 35,416.98, while the NASDAQ added 40.73 points or 0.29 percent to close at 14,281.76 and the S&P 500 rose 4.46 points or 0.10 percent to end at 4,554.89.

The choppy performance on Wall Street was the result of conflicting commentary regarding interest rates from Federal Reserve governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman.

Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute event, Waller said he is "increasingly confident that policy is currently well positioned to slow the economy and get inflation back to 2 percent."

But then Bowman said during a Utah Bankers Association and Salt Lake Chamber breakfast that she continues to expect the Fed we will need to increase rates further to keep policy sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Tuesday on hopes that OPEC will extend output cuts at Thursday's ministerial meeting. A weak dollar contributed as well to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended up $1.55 or 2.1 percent at $76.41 a barrel.