Hong Kong Stock Market Poised To Halt Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping almost 280 points or 1.1 percent in that span. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 25,330-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, thanks mostly to easing oil prices. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday following losses from the resource, technology, finance and property sectors.

For the day, the index tumbled 271.22 points or 1.06 percent to finish at 25,328.23 after trading between 25,258.03 and 25,638.41.

Among the actives, AIA added 0.30 percent, while Alibaba Group crashed 2.59 percent, Baidu rose 0.16 percent, Bank of China eased 0.19 percent, BOC Hong Kong weakened 1.33 percent, China Construction Bank declined 1.72 percent, China Life Insurance tumbled 1.97 percent, China Merchants Bank was down 0.35 percent, China Mobile slipped 0.47 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical slumped 1.36 percent, China Shenhua Energy shed 0.85 percent, CITIC slid 0.38 percent, CNOOC and Nongfu Spring both plunged 2.23 percent, Hong Kong Exchange lost 0.84 percent, HSBC collected 0.76 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 0.88 percent, JD.com stumbled 1.94 percent, Meituan contracted 1.40 percent, NetEase soared 3.22 percent, PetroChina retreated 1.92 percent, Ping An Insurance skidded 1.24 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing advanced 0.95 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties tanked 2.22 percent, Tencent Holdings dropped 1.05 percent, Xiaomi Corporation cratered 4.57 percent, WuXi AppTec fell 0.62 percent and Zijin Mining plummeted 3.39 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is mildly positive as the major averages spent much of the day bouncing back and forth across the line before ending little changed with a slight upside bias - but enough for all three to hit record closing highs..

The Dow climbed 182.60 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 50,644.28, while the NASDAQ added 18.55 points or 0.07 percent to close at 26,674.73 and the S&P 500 perked 1.24 points or 0.02 percent to end at 7,520.36.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent strength, while optimism about an eventual end to the conflict between the U.S. and Iran continues weigh on oil prices.

Crude oil prices plummeted on Wednesday as investors continue to anticipate a potential U.S.-Iran agreement, despite the hard line from the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $5.05 or 5.38 percent at $88.84 per barrel.

Traders may also have been somewhat reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of key U.S. economic data later today, including the Federal Reserve's preferred readings on consumer price inflation.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see April data for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In March, imports were up 41.2 percent on year and exports rose an annual 35.8 percent for a trade deficit of HKD89.1 billion.