Mild Upside Seen For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Monday ended the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 210 points or 1.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,730-point plateau and it's likely to inch slightly higher again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher ahead of key data points this week. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished slightly higher on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index rose 8.93 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 16,732.85 after trading between 16,580.53 and 16,895.06.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group added 0.50 percent, Alibaba Health Info gained 0.36 percent, ANTA Sports shed 0.51 percent, China Life Insurance lost 0.32 percent, China Mengniu Dairy rose 0.24 percent, China Resources Land plunged 2.27 percent, CITIC dropped 0.69 percent, CNOOC slumped 0.93 percent, Country Garden soared 3.59 percent, Hang Lung Properties jumped 1.37 percent, Henderson Land slid 0.22 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas improved 1.02 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 1.28 percent, JD.com sank 0.58 percent, Lenovo spiked 2.08 percent, Li Ning plummeted 2.41 percent, Meituan stumbled 1.00 percent, New World Development climbed 1.29 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 1.34 percent, Xiaomi Corporation fell 0.26 percent, WuXi Biologics surged 5.39 percent and CSPC Pharmaceutical and Galaxy Entertainment were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as the major averages were fairly volatile on Monday but finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow dipped 11.24 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 38,892.80, while the NASDAQ rose 5.43 points or 0.03 percent to close at 16,253.80 and the S&P 500 eased 1.95 points or 0.04 percent to end at 5,202.39.

The choppy trading on the day came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of closely watched inflation data later in the week.

The inflation data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates, as Federal Reserve officials have repeatedly said they need greater confidence inflation is slowing before cutting rates.

Wednesday will also see the release of the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting, which could also shed additional light on officials' thinking on rates.

Oil prices drifted lower on Monday amid slightly easing geopolitical tensions after Israel removed its troops from Southern Gaza. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended down $0.48 or 0.55 percent at $86.43 a barrel.