Hong Kong Stock Market: Resistance At 20,000 Points

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market bounced higher again on Thursday, one day after halting the four-day winning streak in which it had gained more than 310 points or 1.6 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,950-point plateau although it's tipped to open in the red on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns over the health of the financial system and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are predicted to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index jumped 249.57 points or 1.27 percent to finish at 19,948.73 after trading between 19,695.73 and 19,979.77.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group added 0.44 percent, while Alibaba Health Info was up 0.56 percent, ANTA Sports perked 0.64 percent, China Life Insurance surged 5.19 percent, China Mengniu Dairy accelerated 2.98 percent, China Resources Land gathered 0.85 percent, CITIC skyrocketed 5.65 percent, CNOOC increased 1.31 percent, Country Garden strengthened 1.74 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical spiked 3.18 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tumbled 1.71 percent, Hang Lung Properties soared 3.95 percent, Henderson Land advanced 1.26 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas climbed 1.45 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 5.05 percent, JD.com jumped 2.38 percent, Lenovo dipped 0.12 percent, Li Ning improved 1.56 percent, Meituan was up 0.53 percent, New World Development added 1.22 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 1.14 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rose 0.92 percent and WuXi Biologics rallied 2.63 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 286.50 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 33,127.74, while the NASDAQ dropped 58.93 points or 0.49 percent to close at 11,966.40 and the S&P 500 sank 29.53 points or 0.72 percent to end at 4,061.22.

The continued weakness on Wall Street partly reflects ongoing concerns about turmoil among regional banks after lenders PacWest Bancorp (PACW) and First Horizon (FHN) said they were reviewing their options.

Continued uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates also weighed following the Federal Reserve's tenth straight rate hike on Wednesday. While the Fed's accompanying statement seemed to suggest the central bank plans to pause its rate hiking cycle, Fed Chair Jerome Powell clouded the outlook with a "data-dependent approach" to future monetary policy decisions.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose slightly more than expected last week. Also, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $64.2 billion in March from a revised $70.6 billion in February.

Crude oil futures pared early losses and settled just slightly lower on Thursday, due largely to some short-covering and speculative buying. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down $0.04 at $68.56 a barrel, recovering well from a low of $63.57 a barrel.