Hong Kong Shares May Open Under Pressure On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday finally ended the winning streak that had stretched across 10 sessions and 2,370 points or 13.8 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 18,480-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start for Wednesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, matching the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Tuesday as the entertainment, technology and property stocks were mostly in the red.

For the day, the index shed 98.93 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 18,479.37 after trading between 18,411.02 and 18,638.81.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group retreated 1.82 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 4.09 percent, ANTA Sports advanced 0.70 percent, China Life Insurance rose 0.18 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skidded 1.15 percent, China Resources Land surged 3.71 percent, CITIC added 0.52 percent, CNOOC gained 0.51 percent, Country Garden fell 0.17 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical declined 1.77 percent, Galaxy Entertainment sank 0.67 percent, Hang Lung Properties slumped 1.57 percent, Henderson Land rallied 0.82 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas eased 0.16 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.47 percent, JD.com tumbled 2.12 percent, Lenovo soared 2.61 percent, Li Ning lost 0.23 percent, Meituan plunged 3.99 percent, New World Development climbed 0.79 percent, Techtronic Industries spiked 2.10 percent, Xiaomi Corporation dropped 0.88 percent, WuXi Biologics tanked 2.96 percent and Nongfu Spring was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher but faded to finish mixed and barely changed.

The Dow added 31.99 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 38,884.26, while the NASDAQ slipped 16.69 points or 0.10 percent to close at 16,332.56 and the S&P 500 rose 6.96 points or 0.13 percent to end at 5,187.70.

The modest strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Relatively dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell combined with weaker-than-expected job growth in April have largely eliminated short-lived concerns the Fed might actually consider raising rates.

However, buying interest waned in afternoon trading after Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari suggested interest rates may need to remain at current levels for an "extended period."

Oil futures settled slightly lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for global oil demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.10 at $78.38 a barrel.