Little Movement Expected For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday barely halted the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 950 points or 4.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 21,065-point plateau and it's looking at a flat lead for Wednesday's trade.

The global forecast is cautious ahead of the U.S. interest rate decision later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed, and the oversold Asian markets figure to see little movement ahead of the rate decision.

The Hang Seng finished barely higher on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares and the technology stocks.

For the day, the index perked 0.41 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 21,067.99 after trading between 20,717.64 and 21,175.01.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies tanked 2.21 percent, while Alibaba Group plunged 2.50 percent, Alibaba Health Info spiked 1.28 percent, ANTA Sports slumped 0.68 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.33 percent, China Mengniu Dairy shed 0.27 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dropped 0.55 percent, China Resources Land eased 0.15 percent, CNOOC retreated 0.89 percent, Country Garden jumped 1.08 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical retreated 0.69 percent, Galaxy Entertainment skidded 0.60 percent, Hang Lung Properties stumbled 0.83 percent, Henderson Land sank 0.51 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.23 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.22 percent, JD.com climbed 0.84 percent, Lenovo rallied 0.93 percent, Li Ning added 0.24 percent, Meituan surged 3.29 percent, New World Development declined 1.18 percent, Techtronic Industries plummeted 3.12 percent, Xiaomi Corporation tumbled 1.54 percent and WuXi Biologics and CITIC were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky after the major averages shook off a higher open on Friday. The Dow and S&P quickly turned lower and stayed that way, while the NASDAQ bounced back and forth across the line to finish higher.

The Dow dropped 151.91 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 30,364.83, while the NASDAQ added 19.12 points or 0.18 percent to close at 10,828.35 and the S&P 500 dipped 14.15 points or 0.38 percent to end at 3,735.48.

The choppy trade on Wall Street comes ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today.

The Fed is expected to hike interest rates by 50 basis points, although forecasts are suggesting a 75-bp increase.

In economic news, the Labor Department said producer prices increased on a monthly basis but eased off a 21-year high annually.

Crude oil futures drifted lower Tuesday on reports of a likely proposal to impose a federal surtax on oil companies to curb rising inflation. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended lower by $2.00 or 1.7 percent at $118.93 a barrel.