Hong Kong Bourse May Halt Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, slumping almost 210 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 16,725-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic following better than expected U.S. employment data. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished barely lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks and a mixed picture from the properties and financials.

For the day, the index eased 1.18 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 16,723.92 after trading between 16,480.36 and 16,839.55.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group lost 0.43 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 5.72 percent, ANTA Sports soared 2.25 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.59 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tumbled 3.87 percent, China Resources Land skidded 0.82 percent, CITIC shed 0.55 percent, CNOOC rallied 0.84 percent, Country Garden tanked 4.25 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical sank 0.65 percent, ENN Energy rose 0.25 percent, Haier Smart Home surged 2.60 percent, Hang Lung Properties slumped 0.87 percent, Henderson Land slid 0.22 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.34 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China stumbled 1.00 percent, JD.com declined 1.44 percent, Li Ning dropped 0.72 percent, Meituan jumped 1.47 percent, New World Development advanced 0.83 percent, Techtronic Industries spiked 1.95 percent, Xiaomi Corporation dipped 0.13 percent, WuXi Biologics plunged 4.84 percent and Galaxy Entertainment, Lenovo and CK Infrastructure were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher and remained firmly in the green throughout the session.

The Dow jumped 307.06 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 38,904.04, while the NASDAQ rallied 199.42 points or 1.24 percent to end at 16,248.52 and the S&P 500 advanced 57.13 points or 1.11 percent to close at 5,204.34.

For the week, the Dow plunged 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 slumped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ slid 0.8 percent.

The strength on Wall Street followed the release of the closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected job growth in March.

While the stronger than expected job growth may have added to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates, the report also showed a continued slowdown in the annual rate of wage growth.

Oil futures rose on Friday, extending recent gains on supply worries due to geopolitical tensions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May added $0.32 or 0.37 percent at $86.91 a barrel, settling at a fresh five-month high. WTI crude futures gained 4 percent in the week.