Higher Open Tipped For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market turned lower again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 250 points or 1 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 24,960-point plateau although it's likely to see renewed support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, with sliding oil prices offset by weakness among the tech shares. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the technology, resource and insurance companies, while the financials limited the downside.

For the day, the index sank 247.58 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 24,963.23 after trading between 24,812.50 and 25,031.34.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened mixed and bounced up and down all day before ending on opposite sides of the line.

The Dow jumped 235.60 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 51,947.25, while the NASDAQ sank 161.87 points or 0.64 percent to end at 24,975.82 and the S&P 500 perked 3.68 points or 0.05 percent to close at 7,411.98.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ tumbled 2.1 percent for the week, closing below 25,000 for the first time since late April. The S&P 500 and Dow posted more modest weekly losses, falling by 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street in morning trading came amid a sharp pullback by the price of crude oil as investors analyzed the impact of an output increase by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $2.99 or 3.24 percent at $89.20 per barrel.

The subsequent pullback by stocks in afternoon trading reflected renewed tariff concerns after President Donald Trump threatened to impose substantial tariffs on the European Union over the substantial fines the bloc has levied against major U.S. tech companies.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see June numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In May, imports were up 42.0 percent on month and exports jumped 40.8 percent for a trade deficit of HKD44.2 billion.