Lower Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering more than 170 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,180-point plateau although it's tipped to open under pressure on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday as the financials, properties and technology stocks ended mostly in the green.

For the day, the index improved 134.99 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 18,182.89 after trading between 18,030.79 and 18,372.65.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group rose 0.41 percent, while Alibaba Health Info accelerated 1.96 percent, ANTA Sports advanced 0.84 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.17 percent, China Mengniu Dairy rallied 1.47 percent, China Resources Land sank 0.45 percent, CITIC and Techtronic Industries both jumped 1.46 percent, CNOOC slumped 0.43 percent, Country Garden tumbled 1.84 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical soared 2.61 percent, ENN Energy spiked 2.08 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 0.50 percent, Hang Lung Properties climbed 0.96 percent, Henderson Land lost 0.24 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas perked 0.18 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and CK Infrastructure both collected 0.26 percent, JD.com gained 0.48 percent, Lenovo eased 0.12 percent, Li Ning improved 0.70 percent, Meituan strengthened 1.06 percent, New World Development increased 0.38 percent, Xiaomi Corporation dipped 0.16 percent, WuXi Biologics surged 4.77 percent and Nongfu was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and worsened as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 288.86 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 34,618.86, while the NASDAQ plunged 217.76 points or 1.56 percent to close at 13,708.33 and the S&P 500 sank 54.78 points or 1.22 percent to end at 4,450.32.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ fell 0.4 percent and the S&P dipped 0.2 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week, but the latest batch of U.S. economic data reignited concerns about the possibility of future rate hikes.

The Labor Department said on Friday that import and export prices rose significantly more than expected, while the New York Fed noted a big jump in New York manufacturing activity this month - all of which bode ill for the outlook for interest rates.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, rising on optimism over the outlook for Chinese demand after reports showed Chinese refiners broke refining rate records in August. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.61 or 0.7 percent at $90.77 a barrel.