Higher Open Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 220 points or 0.8 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 26,650-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive on optimism that the end of the U.S. government shutdown in near. The European and U.S. markets were sharply higher and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Monday with gains across the board, especially among the property and technology companies. For the day, the index rallied 407.23 points or 1.55 percent to finish at 26,649.06 after trading between 26,302.93 and 26,668.89. Among the actives, Alibaba Group gained 2.06 percent, while Alibaba Health Info strengthened 3.39 percent, ANTA Sports vaulted 2.92 percent, China Life Insurance jumped 3.74 percent, China Mengniu Dairy spiked 4.17 percent, China Resources Land soared 4.45 percent, CITIC was up 0.88 percent, CNOOC surged 5.95 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical expanded 2.71 percent, Galaxy Entertainment rallied 3.76 percent, Haier Smart Home increased 2.25 percent, Hang Lung Properties advanced 2.46 percent, Henderson Land gathered 0.41 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.26 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.90 percent, JD.com gained 0.40 percent, Lenovo tumbled 1.17 percent, Li Auto added 2.39 percent, Li Ning improved 2.40 percent, Meituan rose 1.27 percent, New World Development accelerated 3.87 percent, Nongfu Spring climbed 2.47 percent, Techtronic Industries gathered 1.17 percent, Xiaomi Corporation perked 0.28 percent and WuXi Biologics picked up 1.12 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Monday and largely spent most of the sessions firmly in positive territory.

The Dow jumped 381.53 points or 0.81 percent to finish at 47,368.63, while the NASDAQ surged 522.64 points or 2.27 percent to close at 23,527.17 and the S&P 500 rallied 103.63 points or 1.54 percent to end at 6,832.43.

The strength on Wall Street came after the Senate voted to advance legislation to end the government shutdown, which recently became the longest in U.S. history. The Senate voted 60-40 in favor of a temporary funding bill, which would also reverse some of the recent mass federal layoffs.

Several Democratic Senators broke with party leaders in favor of moving forward with the legislation, as it does call for a vote on the extension of enhanced Obamacare tax credits.

The end of the shutdown would also lead to the resumption of the release of key U.S. economic data that has recently been withheld.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Monday on the prospects of the U.S. government shutdown coming to a close. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.31 or 0.52 percent at $60.06 per barrel.