Hong Kong Stock Market May End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, slumping almost 600 points or 2.4 percent in that span. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 25,000-point plateau although it's due for support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on hopes for an end to the U.S.-Iran war. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks, properties and resource companies.

For the day, the index tumbled 322.07 points or 1.27 percent to finish at 25,006.16 after trading between 24,727.26 and 25,230.58.

Among the actives, AIA dropped 1.15 percent, while Alibaba Group tanked 2.01 percent, Baidu crashed 2.03 percent, Bank of China skidded 1.16 percent, BOC Hong Kong shed 1.01 percent, China Construction Bank weakened 1.17 percent, China Life Insurance lost 0.97 percent, China Merchants Bank rose 0.22 percent, China Mobile was down 0.41 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical dipped 0.46 percent, China Shenhua Energy slid 0.73 percent, CITIC eased 0.30 percent, CNOOC slipped 0.61 percent, Hong Kong Exchange retreated 1.49 percent, HSBC fell 0.89 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China surrendered 1.93 percent, JD.com stumbled 1.81 percent, Meituan plummeted 5.66 percent, NetEase declined 1.38 percent, Nongfu Spring contracted 1.35 percent, PetroChina added 0.75 percent, Ping An Insurance sank 1.09 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing surged 3.58 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties slumped 1.29 percent, Tencent Holdings cratered 2.16 percent, Xiaomi Corporation gained 0.56 percent, WuXi AppTec tumbled 1.95 percent and Zijin Mining plunged 3.80 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened lower on Thursday but quickly moved to the upside to finish with varying degrees of gains to close at fresh record highs.

The Dow added 24.69 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 50,668.97, while the NASDAQ jumped 242.74 points or 0.91 percent to end at 26,917.47 and the S&P 500 gained 43.27 points or 0.58 percent to close at 7,563.63.

The turnaround on Wall Street came after a report from Axios said U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding.

Crude oil prices handed back most of their early gains on Thursday after reports of the understanding between the U.S. and Iran. After surging as much as $3.84 or 4.3 percent to a high of $92.52 a barrel, crude for July delivery ended up $0.32 or 0.4 percent at $89 a barrel.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department said consumer prices in the U.S. increased slightly less than expected in April.