Lower Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Wednesday's holiday for Regional Establishment Day, the Hong Kong stock market had turned lower again, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 740 points or 3.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 22.880-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on concerns over the outlook for interest rates due to rising inflation. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are likely to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Tuesday as losses from the financial shares and energy stocks were mitigated by support from the technology companies.

For the day, the index slumped 145.66 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 22,881.02 after trading between 22,685.14 and 23,086.85.

Among the actives, AIA skidded 1.04 percent, while Alibaba Group dipped 0.16 percent, Baidu soared 5.08 percent, Bank of China and China Petroleum & Chemical both retreated 1.96 percent, BOC Hong Kong surrendered 2.80 percent, China Construction Bank stumbled 2.06 percent, China Life Insurance sank 1.00 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.13 percent, China Mobile contracted 1.42 percent, China Shenhua Energy tumbled 2.38 percent, CITIC crashed 3.78 percent, CNOOC plummeted 3.61 percent, Hong Kong Exchange weakened 1.09 percent, HSBC collected 0.20 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tanked 2.87 percent, JD.com rose 0.25 percent, Lenovo Group skyrocketed 8.18 percent, Meituan rallied 1.26 percent, NetEase jumped 1.50 percent, Nongfu Spring cratered 8.41 percent, PetroChina plunged 3.53 percent, Ping An Insurance declined 1.64 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing surged 5.42 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties slumped 1.32 percent, Tencent Holdings spiked 2.28 percent, Xiaomi Corporation and Zijin Mining both dropped 1.01 percent and WuXi AppTec added 0.52 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major U.S. averages were higher for much of Wednesday's trade but a late slump saw them finish under water.

The Dow dipped 13.96 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 52,305.24, coming off a record closing high. The NASDAQ sank 173.69 points or 0.66 percent to close at 26.040.03 and the S&) 500 fell 16.13 points or 0.22 percent to end at 7,483.23.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street was the result of ongoing concerns that the AI companies and chipmakers may be overbought - which had the biggest effect on the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

Traders also kept an eye out for developments in the Middle East, with concrete details regarding the end of the war remaining elusive.

In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday showed a modest decrease by its reading on U.S. manufacturing activity in the month of June.

Crude oil prices tumbled again on Wednesday amid gradual recovery in tanker traffic across the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $1.12 or 1.61 percent at $68.38 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release May numbers for retail sales later today; in April, sales were up 8.6 percent on year.