Lower Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has climbed higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had tumbled more than 640 points or 2.6 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 25,975-point plateau although it's looking at a soft start for Monday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on renewed pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index surged 446.28 points or 1.75 percent to finish at 25,976.79 after trading between 25,697.43 and 26,006.47.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group expanded 2.32 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surged 4.31 percent, ANTA Sports and CITIC both increased 1.74 percent, China Life Insurance skyrocketed 5.52 percent, China Mengniu Dairy spiked 2.74 percent, China Resources Land was up 0.21 percent, CNOOC lost 0.10 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical shed 0.39 percent, Galaxy Entertainment perked 0.41 percent, Haier Smart Home advanced 2.16 percent, Hang Lung Properties jumped 2.35 percent, Henderson Land and ENN Energy rose 0.96 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas added 1.56 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.49 percent, JD.com gained 1.14 percent, Lenovo rallied 2.54 percent, Li Auto accelerated 2.89 percent, Li Ning vaulted 2.49 percent, Meituan gathered 0.89 percent, New World Development soared 3.12 percent, Nongfu Spring strengthened 2.22 percent, Techtronic Industries climbed 2.17 percent, Xiaomi Corporation improved 1.85 percent and WuXi Biologics was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the session underwater.

The Dow dropped 245.96 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 48,458.05, while the NASDAQ tumbled 398.69 points or 1.69 percent to close at 23,195.17 and the S&P 500 sank 73.59 points or 1.07 percent to end at 6,827.41.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent and the NASDAQ dove 1.6 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street was fueled by losses on the NASDAQ, which saw heavy selling among the technology stocks on renewed concerns over valuations.

Weak sentiment was also generated by comments from Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee, who explained his decision to vote against cutting interest rates at last week's Fed meeting saying that more inflation data should have been necessary.

Crude oil prices weakened on Friday as traders kept an eye on the latest developments in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery fell $0.20 or 0.4 percent at $57.40 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release Q3 data for industrial production and producer prices later today; in the three months prior, production was up 0.8 percent on year and producer prices rose an annual 4.0 percent.