No Help Yet For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping more than 100 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,380-point plateau and it may extend its losses again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower again on Thursday following losses from the property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index sank 100.80 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 18,382.06 after trading between 18,312.76 and 18,667.18.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group eased 0.17 percent, while Alibaba Health Info skidded 1.49 percent, ANTA Sports dropped 1.28 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skyrocketed 5.60 percent, China Resources Land retreated 2.21 percent, CITIC sank 1.27 percent, CNOOC spiked 1.36 percent, Country Garden declined 2.17 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical fell 0.67 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 0.39 percent, Hang Lung Properties shed 1.13 percent, Henderson Land stumbled 1.82 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.84 percent, JD.com tumbled 2.28 percent, Lenovo surged 2.42 percent, Li Ning tanked 3.01 percent, Meituan plunged 4.25 percent, New World Development surrendered 2.23 percent, Techtronic Industries slumped 1.52 percent, Xiaomi Corporation lost 0.80 percent, WuXi Biologics plummeted 4.54 percent and China Life Insurance and Hong Kong & China Gas were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher but faded as the day progressed, ending on opposite side of the unchanged line.

The Dow sank 168.33 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 34,721.91, while the NASDAQ added 15.66 points or 0.11 percent to close at 14,034.97 and the S&P 500 eased 7.21 points or 0.16 percent to end at 4,507.66.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to a Commerce Department report showing consumer price growth in the U.S. accelerated in line with forecasts in July.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched jobs report later today.

Crude oil moved sharply higher on Thursday, advancing for the sixth consecutive session following another steep drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate for October delivery surged $2 or 2.5 percent to $83.63 a barrel, a three-week closing high.