Little Movement Seen For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Friday halted the two-day losing streak in which it had slipped more than 90 points or 0.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 24,825-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly directionless amidst a lack of catalysts, with oil and biotechnology stocks likely to fall under pressure. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Friday with gains across the board, especially among the financial shares, technology stocks and properties.

For the day, the index rallied 326.76 points or 1.33 percent to finish at the daily high of 24,825.66 after trading as low as 24,630.79.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group spiked 2.93 percent, while Alibaba Health Info advanced 1.29 percent, ANTA Sports improved 1.30 percent, China Life Insurance skyrocketed 5.13 percent, China Mengniu Dairy added 0.95 percent, China Resources Land was up 0.35 percent, CITIC expanded 0.92 percent, CNOOC rallied 1.54 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical accelerated 2.57 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dropped 0.93 percent, Haier Smart Home perked 0.61 percent, Hang Lung Properties climbed 1.36 percent, Henderson Land lost 0.38 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas sank 0.44 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.81 percent, JD.com soared 2.97 percent, Lenovo fell 0.20 percent, Li Auto picked up 0.32 percent, Li Ning gathered 0.62 percent, Meituan strengthened 1.43 percent, New World Development gained 0.91 percent, Nongfu Spring surged 3.74 percent, Techtronic Industries increased 1.04 percent, Xiaomi Corporation jumped 1.51 percent and WuXi Biologics rose 0.88 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly turned lower before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 142.31 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 44,342.19, while the NASDAQ rose 10.06 points or 0.05 percent to close at 20,895.66 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,296.79.

For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.5 percent the S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent and the Dow dipped 0.1 percent.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came on profit taking after the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs at the open.

The pullback came amid a slump by shares of Netflix (NFLX), after the company reported better than expected second quarter results but warned its operating margin in the second half will be lower than the first half.

Crude oil prices turned lower on Friday after OPEC's demand forecast prompted concerns of a production surplus. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery closed down by $0.20 at $67.34 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide June numbers for consumer prices later today; in May, inflation was down 0.3 percent on month and up 1.9 percent on year.