Higher Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 450 points or 2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 26,700-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat amid optimism about an end to the record-setting U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Tuesday as the financial shares, technology stocks and properties were mostly in the green.

For the day, the index rose 47.35 points or 0.18 percent to end at 26,696.41 after trading between 26,511.25 and 26,788.43.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tumbled 1.84 percent, while Alibaba Health Info shed 0.52 percent, ANTA Sports dropped 0.72 percent, China Life Insurance sank 0.53 percent, China Mengniu Dairy and CNOOC both lost 0.27 percent, China Resources Land soared 1.93 percent, CITIC added 0.55 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical fell 0.26 percent, Galaxy Entertainment spiked 1.64 percent, Haier Smart Home stumbled 1.74 percent, Hang Lung Properties surged 3.31 percent, Henderson Land was up 0.14 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas perked 0.13 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.62 percent, JD.com slumped 1.12 percent, Lenovo retreated 1.27 percent, Li Auto gained 0.38 percent, Li Ning rallied 0.69 percent, Meituan declined 1.26 percent, New World Development improved 0.40 percent, Nongfu Spring rose 0.28 percent, Techtronic Industries eased 0.22 percent, Xiaomi Corporation accelerated 1.46 percent and WuXi Biologics stumbled 2.69 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is incongruous as the major averages opened mixed and ultimately finished the same way.

The Dow jumped 559.33 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 47,927.96, while the NASDAQ slumped 58.87 points or 0.25 percent to close at 23,468.30 and the S&P 500 rose 14.18 points or 0.21 percent to end at 6,846.61.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders express some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets - especially the possibility of a tech bubble - following recent volatility.

However, valuation concerns continue to hang over the markets, as traders had largely shrugged off worries about the economic impact of the shutdown.

A sharp increase by the price of crude oil has also contributed to considerable strength among energy stocks, which are moving higher along with biotechnology and healthcare stocks.

On the other hand, semiconductor stocks have come under pressure, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 2.0 percent.