Hong Kong Shares May Take Further Damage On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday snapped the four-day winning streak in which it had gained more than 310 points or 1.6 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,700-point plateau and it's expected to see continued consolidation on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on sliding oil prices and renewed uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index slumped 234.65 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 19,699.16 after trading between 19,538.72 and 19,721.96.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group stumbled 2.37 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 4.15 percent, ANTA Sports lost 0.96 percent, China Life Insurance shed 1.08 percent, China Mengniu Dairy rallied 2.41 percent, China Resources Land declined 2.63 percent, CITIC surrendered 2.70 percent, CNOOC plunged 3.32 percent, Country Garden dropped 1.37 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slumped 1.85 percent, Hang Lung Properties tumbled 2.81 percent, Henderson Land dipped0.36 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas sank 1.14 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.95 percent, JD.com tanked 2.82 percent, Lenovo jumped 1.10 percent, Li Ning was down 0.55 percent, Meituan slid 0.91 percent, New World Development slipped 0.49 percent, Techtronic Industries retreated 2.35 percent, Xiaomi Corporation skidded 1.63 percent, WuXi Biologics weakened 1.83 percent and CSPC Pharmaceutical was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages spent much of the day hugging the unchanged line before sinking late in afternoon.

The Dow tumbled 270.29 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 33,414.24, while the NASDAQ lost 55.18 points or 0.46 percent to end at 12,025.33 and the S&P 500 sank 28.83 points or 0.70 percent to close at 4,090.75.

The lower close on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to raise interest rates by another quarter-point but appeared to signal a potential pause in rate hikes.

However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments during his post-meeting press conference led to renewed uncertainty about the outlook for rates.

Powell said the central bank would take a "data-dependent approach" to future monetary policy decisions and stressed a decision on a pause was not made at the meeting.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday amid concerns about economic growth and the outlook for energy demand, as well as data showing an increase in gasoline inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down $3.06 or 4.3 percent at $68.60 a barrel, the lowest settlement since March 24.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see March numbers for retail sales and April results for its private sector PMI from S&P Global later today. Sales are expected to jump 19.6 percent on year after surging 31.3 percent in February. The PMI score is expected to improve to 53.7 from 53.5 in March.