Lower Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, tumbling more than 675 points or 3.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,925-point plateau and it's looking at another soft lead for Friday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on persistent concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Thursday following weakness from the financials and mixed performances from the technology and property sectors.

For the day, the index lost 125.51 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 19,925.74 after trading between 19,907.58 and 20,157.24.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dropped 1.46 percent, while Alibaba Health Info declined 1.94 percent, ANTA Sports tumbled 2.08 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 1.77 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plummeted 3.14 percent, China Resources Land plunged 2.60 percent, CITIC fell 0.67 percent, CNOOC jumped 1.66 percent, Country Garden tanked 2.11 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 1.85 percent, Galaxy Entertainment advanced 0.86 percent, Henderson Land added 0.72 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas lost 0.83 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.97 percent, JD.com gained 0.56 percent, Lenovo eased 0.14 percent, Li Ning sank 0.98 percent, Meituan retreated 1.90 percent, New World Development rose 0.23 percent, Techtronic Industries surged 5.50 percent, Xiaomi Corporation skidded 1.67 percent, WuXi Biologics slid 0.19 percent and Hang Lung Properties was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday and hugged the line before plummeting in afternoon trade, finishing near session lows.

The Dow plunged 543.54 points or 1.66 percent to finish at 32,254.86, while the NASDAQ tumbled 237.65 points or 2.05 percent to close at 11,338.35 and the S&P 500 sank 73.69 points or 1.85 percent to end at 3,918.32.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street followed the Labor Department report the showed initial jobless claims rose by more than expected last week, although the data helped ease concerns about labor market tightness.

Buying interest tumbled as the day progressed as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's more closely watched monthly jobs report later today. The report could have a significant effect on the pace of interest rate hikes as determined by the FOMC.

Crude oil prices retreated on Thursday, extending losses to a third straight day amid concerns that aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve could slow global economic growth and result in a drop in energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.94 or 1.2 percent at $75.72 a barrel.