Hong Kong Stock Market Has Weak Lead For Monday's Trade

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market turned lower again on Friday, one session after ending the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 500 points or 2.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 18,760-point plateau and it's expected to open lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on fears for the global economy and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the technology stocks and oil companies were mitigated by support from the property sector.

For the day, the index dropped 168.71 points or 0.89 percent to 18,761.69 after trading between 18,678.22 and 18,905.28.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dropped 1.48 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 5.62 percent, ANTA Sports and China Resources Land both fell 0.87 percent, China Life Insurance sank 1.61 percent, China Mengniu Dairy advanced 1.63 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) slid 0.86 percent, CNOOC surrendered 2.33 percent, Country Garden tumbled 2.58 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical shed 1.30 percent, Galaxy Entertainment jumped 1.98 percent, Hang Lung Properties climbed 1.79 percent, Henderson Land rallied 1.82 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gained 0.97 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.78 percent, JD.com weakened 1.68 percent, Lenovo lost 1.14 percent, Li Ning declined 2.19 percent, Longfor tanked 2.94 percent, Meituan retreated 2.00 percent, New World Development added 1.15 percent, Techtronic Industries spiked 2.20 percent, Xiaomi Corporation slumped 1.73 percent, WuXi Biologics plunged 4.25 percent and CITIC and Nongfu Spring were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened firmly lower and stayed that was throughout the session.

The Dow slumped 139.38 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 30,822.42, while the NASDAQ dropped 104.00 points or 0.90 percent to close at 11,448.40 and the S&P 500 fell 28.02 points or 0.72 percent to end at 3,873.33.

For the week, the Dow tumbled 4.1 percent, the S&P 500 plunged 4.8 percent and the NASDAQ plummeted 5.5 percent.

A steep drop by shares of FedEx (FDX) fueled the weakness on Wall Street, with the delivery giant plunging 21.4 percent to a two-year closing low. The sell-off by FedEx came after the company reported weaker than expected preliminary fiscal Q1 results and withdrew its full-year guidance.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates also continued to weigh on the markets ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision this week. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, although some see an outside chance for a 100-point rate hike.

Crude oil futures settled roughly flat on Friday following the resumption of oil exports from Iraq's Basra oil terminal, where a spillage had forced disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for October settled at $85.11 a barrel, up $0.01 from the previous close. WTI crude futures shed nearly 2 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release jobless figures for August later today; in July, the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent.