Mild Consolidation Anticipated For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 1,150 points or 4.4 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 27,140-point plateau and it may tick lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky as the U.S. government shutdown continues. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Friday as the technology, property and financial shares were mostly in the red.

For the day, the index shed 146.20 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 27,140.92 after trading between 26,972.71 and 27,262.00.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group climbed 1.09 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rose 0.30 percent, ANTA Sports skidded 0.43 percent, China Life Insurance and China Mengniu Dairy both sank 0.27 percent, China Resources Land tumbled 0.82 percent, CITIC plummeted 2.64 percent, CNOOC dropped 0.42 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical gained 0.52 percent, Galaxy Entertainment and JD.com both tanked 1.82 percent, Haier Smart Home added 0.62 percent, Hang Lung Properties perked 0.12 percent, Henderson Land and Hong Kong & China Gas both fell 0.15 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China declined 0.52 percent, Lenovo shed 0.25 percent, Li Auto plunged 2.35 percent, Li Ning stumbled 1.37 percent, Meituan increased 0.28 percent, New World Development jumped 1.73 percent, Nongfu Spring retreated 0.74 percent, Techtronic Industries slumped 0.46 percent, Xiaomi Corporation surrendered 1.43 percent and WuXi Biologics gathered 0.24 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher on Friday but went off in different directions to finish mixed.

The Dow jumped 238.58 points or 0.51 percent to finish at a record 46,758.28, while the NASDAQ sank 63.59 points or 0.28 percent to end at 22,780.51 and the S&P 500 perked 0.44 points or 0.01 percent to close at 6,715.79, also a record. For the week, the NASDAQ rallied 1.3 percent, while the Dow and the S&P both rose 1.1 percent.

The NASDAQ sank on weakness from technology shares such as Palantir (PLTR), Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA).

The lackluster performance by the broader markets came as the ongoing U.S. government shutdown has led to the indefinite delay of key U.S. economic data, including Friday's closely watched monthly jobs report.

However, weak data from non-government sources has increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates in the coming months.

Crude oil prices advanced on Friday amid U.S. dollar weakness as the government shutdown persisted. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.41 or 0.68 percent at $60.89 per barrel.