Higher Open Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 290 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 19,390-point plateau and it's expected to see additional support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic ahead of this week's Federal Reserve's meeting. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the oil companies and mixed performances from the properties and technology stocks.

For the day, the index gained 90.75 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 19,389.95 after trading between 19,231.13 and 19,463.61.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group advanced 0.66 percent, while Alibaba Health Info shed 0.62 percent, ANTA Sports spiked 2.16 percent, China Life Insurance sank 0.88 percent, China Mengniu Dairy and Hong Kong & China Gas both dropped 0.99 percent, China Resources Land rose 0.14 percent, CITIC was up 0.10 percent, CNOOC rallied 0.85 percent, Country Garden tumbled 1.57 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical and New World Development both gained 0.30 percent, Galaxy Entertainment climbed 0.70 percent, Hang Lung Properties lost 0.45 percent, Henderson Land added 0.63 percent, JD.com collected 0.21 percent, Lenovo jumped 1.33 percent, Li Ning eased 0.22 percent, Meituan soared 2.17 percent, Techtronic Industries lost 0.60 percent, Xiaomi Corporation fell 0.37 percent, WuXi Biologics surged 2.99 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and ENN Energy were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened firmly higher on Friday, slumped midday but ticked back into the green to end slightly higher.

The Dow added 43.18 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 33,876.78, while the NASDAQ rose 20.64 points or 0.16 percent to close at 13,259.14 and the S&P 500 perked 4.93 points or 0.11 percent to end at 4,298.86.

For the week, the S&P rose 0.4 percent, the Dow gained 0.3 percent and the NASDAQ perked 0.1 percent.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders continued to look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

Thursday's report showing initial jobless claims jumped to their highest level since October 2021 last week added to the optimism about the Fed pausing its interest rate hikes.

Crude oil prices slumped again on Friday, extending losses from the previous session on concerns about the outlook for demand ahead of several key central bank meetings this week. West Texas Intermediate for July delivery fell $1.12 or 1.6 percent to $70.17 a barrel.