Hong Kong Bourse May Reclaim 20,000-Point Level

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Thursday ended the three-day slide in which it had dropped more than 500 points or 2.5 percent. The Hang Seng now rests just beneath the 19,970-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian bourses is positive after interest rate concerns resulted in oversold markets. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished with huge gains on Thursday with support across the board - especially from the financials, technology stocks and properties.

For the day, the index rallied 699.64 points or 3.63 percent to finish at 19,968.38 after trading between 19,418.46 and 19,990.31.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group soared 8.75 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rallied 4.67 percent, ANTA Sports added 1.25 percent, China Life Insurance collected 2.87 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surged 9.16 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 1.36 percent, China Resources Land accelerated 4.75 percent, CITIC improved 1.00 percent, CNOOC spiked 4.84 percent, Country Garden jumped 3.73 percent, while CSPC Pharmaceutical strengthened 3.40 percent, Galaxy Entertainment and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both collected 1.26 percent, Hang Lung Properties dipped 0.31 percent, Henderson Land rose 0.77 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.38 percent, JD.com skyrocketed 11.00 percent, Lenovo advanced 2.26 percent, Li Ning gained 0.94 percent, Longfor climbed 2.85 percent, Meituan soared 8.04 percent, New World Development added 0.98 percent, Techtronic Industries spiked 2.99 percent, Xiaomi Corporation jumped 3.63 percent and WuXi Biologics rallied 4.50 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly turned higher and maintained a largely positive bias throughout the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow spiked 322.55 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 33,291.78, while the NASDAQ surged 207.74 points or 1.67 percent to end at 12,639.27 and the S&P 500 jumped 58.35 points or 1.41 percent to end at 4,199.12.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech in the Jackson Hole Symposium later today.

Powell is widely expected to reiterate the central bank's hawkish stance, given the expectations that inflation in the U.S. will be persistent and it will take time to contain it. That has already largely been priced into the markets, however.

On the economic front, the Labor Department said the U.S. economy contracted an annualized 0.6 percent in the second quarter, following a 1.6 percent drop a quarter earlier. Also, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures settled lower Thursday, after posting gains in the previous two sessions. Oil prices fell as traders weighed the prospects for the return of Iranian oil to the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended lower by $2.37 or 2.5 percent at $92.52 a barrel.