Mild Upside Seen For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market turned lower again on Thursday, one day after ending the five-day losing streak in which it had given up more than 1,500 points or more than 6 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 23,075-point plateau and it's looking at a fairly flat lead on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on continuing tensions in the Middle East and weak economic data. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed to lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index tanked 335.27 points or 1.43 percent to finish at 23,076.91 after trading between 22,978.59 and 23,388.50.

Among the actives, AIA and China Merchants Bank both dropped 1.97 percent, while Alibaba Group plunged 4.43 percent, Baidu crashed 3.45 percent, Bank of China cratered 5.31 percent, BOC Hong Kong dipped 0.43 percent, China Construction Bank contracted 2.24 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.56 percent, China Mobile slid 0.51 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical slipped 1.20 percent, China Shenhua Energy tanked 3.15 percent, CITIC sank 1.83 percent, CNOOC tumbled 2.75 percent, Hong Kong Exchange fell 1.24 percent, HSBC perked 0.07 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slumped 2.07 percent, JD.com declined 2.32 percent, Lenovo Group surged 4.62 percent, Meituan retreated 2.44 percent, NetEase skidded 2.05 percent, Nongfu Spring spiked 2.76 percent, PetroChina stumbled 2.46 percent, Ping An Insurance lost 1.70 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing jumped 1.42 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties soared 2.81 percent, Tencent Holdings shed 1.73 percent, Xiaomi Corporation surrendered 2.87 percent, WuXi AppTec rallied 2.33 percent and Zijin Mining plummeted 4.76 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but spent most of the day bouncing back and forth across the line, finally ending mixed.

The Dow added 71.72 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 51,920.62, while the NASDAQ slumped 118.03 points or 0.46 percent to end at 25,358.60 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.73 points or 0.01 percent to close at 7,357.49.

The aimless trade came as investors digested a slew of economic data and some corporate news, including earnings update from Micron Technology - which rallied on stronger-than-expected earnings and an upward revision in revenue forecast.

In economic news, the Labor Department showed the core PCE price index - which is the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of underlying inflation - moved further above the Federal Reserve's percent target. Also, the Commerce Department said new orders dropped more than expected, while jobless claims were down from a week earlier and GDP slowed in the first quarter.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in the Middle East as tensions along the Strait of Hormuz persist.

Crude oil prices jumped on Thursday as supply disruption threats reappeared after a projectile hit a cargo ship near Oman across the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was up $1.49 or 2.12 percent at $71.83 per barrel.