Hong Kong Bourse May Remain Stuck In Neutral

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 825 points or 3.9 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 21,000-point plateau and now it's got an uninspired lead for Thursday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on fears of continued policy tightening and worldwide recession. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday with losses in all sectors, especially the technology, property and oil companies.

For the day, the index plummeted 551.25 points or 2.56 percent to finish at the daily low of 21,008.34 after peaking at 21,519.58.

Among the actives, Alibaba Health Info plummeted 13.85 percent, while JD.com plunged 6.23 percent, ANTA Sports tanked 5.03 percent, Meituan cratered 4.77 percent, Li Ning tumbled 4.20 percent, Alibaba Group surrendered 4.06 percent, Country Garden declined 3.94 percent, CNOOC retreated 3.82 percent, Xiaomi Corporation weakened 3.17 percent, AAC Technologies slumped 3.16 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) skidded 2.83 percent, WuXi Biologics dropped 2.81 percent, Lenovo Group sank 2.56 percent, China Resources Land shed 1.73 percent, Hang Lung Properties lost 1.63 percent, China Mengniu Dairy jumped 1.62 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical fell 1.61 percent, Techtronic Industries slid 1.57 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dipped 1.52 percent, Galaxy Entertainment was down 1.46 percent, New World Development slipped 1.07 percent, Henderson Land lost 1.03 percent, China Life fell 091 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dipped 0.60 percent and CITIC eased 0.13 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly negative as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday, then spent most of the day in the green before slipping back into negative territory at the close.

The Dow shed 47.12 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 30,483.13, while the NASDAQ lost 16.22 points or 0.15 percent to close at 11,053.08 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.90 points or 0.13 percent to end at 3,759.89.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders reacted to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Powell indicated the Fed plans to continue moving expeditiously to combat inflation but argued the U.S. economy is strong enough to handle tighter monetary policy.

Powell said the pace of future interest rate hikes will be dependent on incoming data and the evolving outlook for the economy and suggested the Fed will need to see "compelling evidence" that inflation is slowing before it begins to scale back its monetary policy tightening plans.

Crude oil futures tumbled on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to slowing global growth following sharp interest rate hikes by central banks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $3.33 or 3 percent at $106.19 a barrel, the lowest settlement in six weeks.