Hong Kong Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, collecting more than 60 points or 0.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,250-point plateau and it may see mild upside again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on better-than-expected inflation data from the United States. The European and U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished barely higher on Thursday following gains from the casinos and oil companies, weakness from the properties and financials and a mixed if volatile performance from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index perked 2.23 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 19,248.26 after trading between 19,030.39 and 19,315.17.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group added 0.21 percent, while Alibaba Health Info improved 0.54 percent, ANTA Sports perked 0.06 percent, China Life Insurance eased 0.15 percent, China Mengniu Dairy fell 0.18 percent, China Resources Land slumped 0.73 percent, CITIC climbed 0.97 percent, CNOOC rallied 1.72 percent, Country Garden plunged 4.26 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical gained 0.17 percent, Galaxy Entertainment jumped 1.74 percent, Hang Lung Properties and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both dropped 0.55 percent, Lenovo tumbled 3.18 percent, Li Ning advanced 0.81 percent, Meituan rose 0.07 percent, New World Development lost 0.23 percent, Techtronic Industries plummeted 17.03 percent, Xiaomi Corporation sank 0.49 percent and WuXi Biologics, Henderson Land, Hong Kong & China Gas and JD.com were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened sharply higher on Thursday but faded as the day progressed, ending just barely in the green.

The Dow added 52.79 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 35,176.15, while the NASDAQ gained 15.97 points or 0.12 percent to close at 13,737.99 and the S&P 500 perked 1.12 points or 0.03 percent to end at 4,468.83.

The early rally on Wall Street came after the Labor Department released a report showing the annual rate of consumer price inflation accelerated less than expected in July.

While the data reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged next month, economists suggested sticky core inflation could leave the door open for the Fed to resume raising rates in November.

Oil prices fell from multi-month highs Thursday amid concerns about the outlook for oil demand from China after imports plummeted. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.58 at $$82.82 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release Q2 figures for GDP later today; in the previous three months, GDP was up 5.3 percent on quarter and 2.9 percent on year.