Lower Open Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day slide in which it had plummeted more than 840 points or 3.8 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 21,620-point plateau although it's expected to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing 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 sharply higher on Thursday with gains across the board, especially among the properties and technology stocks.

For the day, the index surged 340.84 points or 1.60 percent to finish at 21,624.36 after trading between 21,151.27 and 21,637.55.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group soared 3.96 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surged 4.42 percent, ANTA Sports jumped 1.67 percent, China Life Insurance spiked 3.56 percent, China Resources Land added 0.68 percent, CITIC slumped 0.55 percent, CNOOC skidded 0.87 percent, Country Garden strengthened 1.14 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical was up 0.11 percent, Galaxy Entertainment rallied 3.23 percent, Hang Lung Properties advanced 0.89 percent, Henderson Land gathered 0.52 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas and Meituan both perked 0.26 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 0.74 percent, JD.com jumped 2.46 percent, Lenovo soared 3.04 percent, Li Ning spiked 2.66 percent, New World Development climbed 1.04 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.67 percent, Xiaomi Corporation skyrocketed 8.51 percent, WuXi Biologics improved 0.77 percent and China Mengniu Dairy was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages were unable to hold on to early gains on Thursday, sinking into the red by midday and ending at daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 249.13 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 33,699.88, while the NASDAQ slumped 120.94 points or 1.02 percent to close at 11,789.58 and the S&P 500 sank 36.36 points or 0.88 percent to end at 4,081.50.

The sharp pullback on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing interest rate concerns following hawkish comments by some Federal Reserve officials.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by slightly more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures ended lower Thursday as rising crude inventories in the U.S. and prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $78.06 a barrel.