Hong Kong Stock Market Expected To End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, surrendering more than 800 points or 4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 20,800-point plateau although it's due for support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the properties and technology stocks. For the day, the index tumbled 301.59 points or 1.43 percent to finish at 20,812.17 after trading between 20,726.83 and 21,117.58. Among the actives, Alibaba Group slumped 1.56 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plunged 4.20 percent, ANTA Sports tanked 3.61 percent, China Life Insurance tumbled 3.14 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surrendered 2.76 percent, China Resources Land declined 2.31 percent, CITIC sank 1.11 percent, CNOOC shed 0.87 percent, Country Garden plummeted 5.69 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 1.69 percent, Galaxy Entertainment was down 0.37 percent, Hang Lung Properties eased 0.13 percent, Henderson Land retreated 1.95 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.78 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slumped 1.24 percent, JD.com lost 0.79 percent, Lenovo slid 0.61 percent, Li Ning declined 2.27 percent, Meituan skidded 1.22 percent, New World Development dropped 1.12 percent, Techtronic Industries plummeted 5.50 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rose 0.15 percent and WuXi Biologics tumbled 2.50 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened sharply lower on Wednesday but improved steadily throughout the session and finished in the green.

The Dow added 38.78 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 34,128.05, while the NASDAQ jumped 110.45 points or 0.92 percent to end at 12,070.59 and the S&P 500 rose 11.47 points or 0.28 percent to close at 4,147.60.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of upbeat retail sales data.

The sharp increase in retail sales has led to concerns the Federal Reserve will be encouraged to continue aggressively raising interest rates in an effort to combat inflation.

The concerns about rates may have been partly offset by a separate report from the Federal Reserve showing U.S. industrial production was unexpectedly unchanged in January.

Crude oil prices came off daily lows but still moved solidly lower on Wednesday, hurt by a stronger U.S. dollar and a spike in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate was down $0.47 or 0.6 percent to $78.59 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see January figures for unemployment later today; in December, the jobless rate was 3.5 percent.