Hong Kong Shares May See Additional Support

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Monday ended the four-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 750 points or 4.4 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 17,425-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky ahead of a possible U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Monday thanks to bargain hunting among the technology stocks, properties and oil companies.

For the day, the index jumped 222.95 points or 1.30 percent to finish at 17,426.21 after trading between 17,126.61 and 17,456.08.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group added 1.32 percent, while Alibaba Health Info improved 1.91 percent, ANTA Sports gathered 0.94 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.75 percent, China Mengniu Dairy spiked 2.91 percent, CITIC surged 3.46 percent, CNOOC jumped 2.38 percent, Country Garden tumbled 1.87 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical acquired 0.59 percent, Galaxy Entertainment was up 0.24 percent, Hang Lung Properties strengthened 1.94 percent, Henderson Land rallied 2.42 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas advanced 1.89 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 1.09 percent, JD.com increased 1.82 percent, Lenovo skyrocketed 4.64 percent, Li Ning retreated 1.62 percent, Meituan perked 0.81 percent, New World Development climbed 1.93 percent, Techtronic Industries accelerated 2.50 percent, Xiaomi Corporation gained 1.12 percent, WuXi Biologics eased 0.10 percent and China Resources Land was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened sharply lower on Monday before recovering to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 54.77 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 34,337.87, while the NASDAQ slipped 30.36 points or 0.22 percent to close at 13,767.74 and the S&P 500 fell 3.69 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,411.55.

The early weakness on Wall Street came as some traders looked to cash in on last week's rally, which lifted the tech-heavy NASDAQ to a nearly two-month closing high.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to news credit rating agency Moody's has lowered its outlook for the U.S. credit rating to negative from stable amid concerns about a possible government shutdown.

The selling pressure was offset by a New York Federal Reserve report showing a modest decrease in consumer inflation expectations, sparking optimism the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates.

Crude oil prices moved up on Monday, gaining for a third straight session amid some optimism about the outlook for energy demand, as well as a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $78.26 a barrel.