Hong Kong Bourse Predicted To Open Under Pressure On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 140 points or 0.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 21,120-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of quarterly earnings and on renewed pandemic concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties, oil companies and technology stocks.

For the day, the index plummeted 601.58 points or 2.77 percent to finish at 21,124.20 after trading between 21,001.63 and 21,470.77.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies shed 1.67 percent, while Alibaba Group plunged 5.79 percent, Alibaba Health Info retreated 3.98 percent, ANTA Sports plummeted 6.91 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 1.90 percent, China Mengniu Dairy weakened 2.20 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) was down 0.57 percent, China Resources Land slumped 2.70 percent, CITIC fell 1.21 percent, CNOOC eased 0.51 percent, Country Garden crashed 12.96 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical sank 1.89 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tanked 4.93 percent, Hang Lung Properties skidded 1.92 percent, Henderson Land lost 1.22 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slid 1.05 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Lenovo both dipped 0.70 percent, JD.com surrendered 4.39 percent, Li Ning tumbled 4.45 percent, Meituan cratered 5.56 percent, New World Development slipped 0.73 percent, Techtronic Industries dropped 2.98 percent, Xiaomi Corporation declined 4.31 percent and WuXi Biologics stumbled 3.69 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened firmly lower on Monday and largely remained that way throughout the session.

The Dow sank 164.31 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 31.173.84, while the NASDAQ plummeted 262.71 points or 2.26 percent to finish at 11,372.60 and the S&P 500 dropped 44.95 points or 1.15 percent to end at 3,854.43.

Renewed Covid concerns contributed to the weakness on Wall Street as Shanghai reported its first case of the highly infectious BA.5 omicron sub-variant, raising fears of more lockdowns.

Macau also closed all its casinos for the first time in over two years on Monday after a coronavirus outbreak in the world's biggest gambling hub.

Light trading activity may have exaggerated the downward move, as some traders stuck to the sidelines amid a lack of major U.S. economic data and corporate earnings.

Crude oil prices slipped Monday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid a surge in coronavirus cases in China, while the dollar's jump amid expectations of sharp interest rate hikes also weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $0.70 or 0.7 percent at $104.90 a barrel.