Hang Seng May See Renewed Support

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 180 points or 1.1 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 17,560-point plateau although it's expected to cut into those losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on positive momentum regarding the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board, especially among the technology and property sectors.

For the day, the index plummeted 351.38 points or 1.96 percent to finish at 17,559.42 after trading between 17,545.61 and 17,771.75.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group fell 1.36 percent, while Alibaba Health Info declined 2.77 percent, ANTA Sports slumped 2.58 percent, China Life Insurance weakened 2.28 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 3.04 percent, China Resources Land tumbled 2.89 percent, CITIC dropped 1.59 percent, CNOOC dipped 0.92 percent, Country Garden surrendered 2.91 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical lost 1.42 percent, Galaxy Entertainment was down 0.91 percent, Hang Lung Properties fell 0.70 percent, Henderson Land slid 1.11 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas shed 1.43 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 1.56 percent, JD.com skidded 1.87 percent, Lenovo declined 1.35 percent, Li Ning plunged 3.59 percent, Meituan and Haier Smart Home both retreated 2.76 percent, New World Development slipped 1.05 percent, Techtronic Industries eased 0.64 percent, Xiaomi Corporation stumbled 2.85 percent and WuXi Biologics plummeted 4.06 percent.

The lead from Wall Street varies widely as the Dow opened higher on Friday and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P bounced back and forth across the line all day and finished barely higher.

The Dow gained 117.15 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 35,390.15, while the NASDAQ dipped 15.05 points or 0.11 percent to close at 14,250.85 and the S&P 500 perked 2.72 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,559.34.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the Dow rose 1.3 percent, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ climbed 0.9 percent.

The choppy action on Wall Street came as many traders remained away from their desks following Thursday's holiday, with the markets closing three hours earlier than usual.

A lack of major U.S. economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of this week's reports on new home sales, consumer confidence, pending home sales and manufacturing activity.

Oil prices fell sharply Friday, with traders waiting on a crucial OPEC meeting this week as oil producers struggling to come to a consensus on production levels. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.56 or 2 percent at $75.54 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release October figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In September, imports were down 0.4 percent on month and exports sank 5.3 percent for a trade deficit of HKD64.6 billion.