Hong Kong Shares May Take Further Damage On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, stumbling more than 100 points or 0.6 percent in that span. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,630-point plateau and it's expected to open in the red again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautious ahead of key economic data later this week. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower again on Monday following losses from the property stocks and mixed performances from the financial shares and technology companies.

For the day, the index sank 91.12 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 16,634.74 after trading between 16,590.71 and 16,777.41.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group skidded 0.54 percent, while Alibaba Health Info slid 0.28 percent, ANTA Sports plunged 2.08 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 2.06 percent, China Mengniu Dairy climbed 1.20 percent, China Resources Land shed 0.39 percent, CITIC and CK Infrastructure both stumbled 0.85 percent, CNOOC rallied 2.69 percent, Country Garden surged 5.32 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical dropped 0.47 percent, ENN Energy advanced 0.78 percent, Galaxy Entertainment and Henderson Land both added 0.46 percent, Haier Smart Home gained 0.41 percent, Hang Lung Properties lost 0.35 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.33 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.45 percent, JD.com slumped 0.75 percent, Lenovo soared 4.09 percent, Li Ning plummeted 3.83 percent, Meituan sank 0.43 percent, New World Development tumbled 1.85 percent, Techtronic Industries jumped 1.40 percent, Xiaomi Corporation declined 0.91 percent and WuXi Biologics spiked 2.85 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but faded as the day progressed, ending with mild losses.

The Dow shed 62.30 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 39,069.23, while the NASDAQ lost 20.57 points or 0.13 percent to close at 15,976.25 and the S&P 500 fell 19.27 points or 0.38 percent to end at 5,069.53.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders seem be reluctant to make significant moves as they digest last week's gains, which lifted the Dow and S&P 500 to new record highs.

Traders were also cautious ahead of key inflation reports later this week from Germany, France and Spain - as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve's favored core measure of personal consumption expenditure prices.

In economic news, the Commerce Department reported a continued rebound in new home sales in the U.S. in January, although the increase fell short of estimates.

Oil prices pared early losses and climbed higher on Monday as continued attacks by Houthi militants in the Red Sea route raised concerns about supply. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $77.58 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see January numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In December, import were up 11.6 percent on year and exports rose 11.0 percent for a trade deficit of HKD59.9 billion.