Hong Kong Shares Due For Profit Taking

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has tracked higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 600 points or 3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 20,300-point plateau although investors are likely to cash in on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key inflation data later this week. The European and U.S. markets finished mixed and mostly flat and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion. The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the energy companies and financials, while the properties and technology stocks were mixed. For the day, the index rallied 247.72 points or 1.24 percent to finish at 20,297.03 after trading between 20,081.70 and 20,321.74.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group rose 0.37 percent, while Alibaba Health Info shed 0.54 percent, ANTA Sports eased 0.05 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.29 percent, China Mengniu Dairy rallied 1.97 percent, China Resources Land sank 0.82 percent, CITIC jumped 2.12 percent, CNOOC surged 5.83 percent, Country Garden tumbled 1.65 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical fell 0.37 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slumped 1.21 percent, Hang Lung Properties declined 1.40 percent, Henderson Land advanced 1.05 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gained 0.70 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China soared 4.47 percent, JD.com dropped 0.92 percent, Lenovo lost 0.50 percent, Li Ning retreated 1.61 percent, Meituan skidded 1.03 percent, New World Development added 0.96 percent, Techtronic Industries slid 0.18 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 3.23 percent, WuXi Biologics was down 0.11 percent and CK Infrastructure was unchanged. The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened flat on Monday and spent much of the day in negative territory before finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 55.69 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 33,618.69, while the NASDAQ added 21.50 points or 0.18 percent to close at 12,256.92 and the S&P 500 perked 1.87 points or 0.05 percent to end at 4,138.12.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead to the release of key inflation data later in the week.

The reports on consumer and producer price inflation, which are due to be released on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing U.S. wholesale inventories were unexpectedly unchanged in March versus expectations for a slight increase.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Monday amid optimism about the outlook for energy demand thanks to last week's fairly encouraging non-farm payrolls data. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for June ended higher by $1.82 or 2.6 percent at $73.16 a barrel.