No Help Yet For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, surrendering almost 950 points or 4.6 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 20,800-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Wednesday as losses from the financial shares and property stocks were mitigated by support from the technology shares.

For the day, the index shed 46.79 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 20,797.95 after trading between 20,751.48 and 21,040.34.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies rose 0.13 percent, while Alibaba Group and Li Ning both skidded 0.37 percent, Alibaba Health Info advanced 0.97 percent, ANTA Sports sank 0.26 percent, China Life Insurance declined 1.14 percent, China Mengniu Dairy and Galaxy Entertainment both soared 1.46 percent, China Resources Land tumbled 2.09 percent, CITIC retreated 0.86 percent, CNOOC tanked 2.24 percent, Country Garden plummeted 6.81 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plunged 4.55 percent, Hang Lung Properties slumped 0.85 percent, Henderson Land and New World Development both fell 0.18 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China surrendered 1.66 percent, JD.com surged 2.95 percent, Lenovo eased 0.14 percent, Meituan spiked 1.40 percent, Xiaomi Corporation climbed 0.95 percent, WuXi Biologics jumped 1.20 percent and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec), Hong Kong & China Gas and Techtronic Industries were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday, flirted with the unchanged line before finally ending with modest losses.

The Dow tumbled 208.54 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 30,772.79, while the NASDAQ eased 17.15 points or 0.15 percent to end at 11,247.58 and the S&P 500 fell 17.02 points or 0.45 percent to close at 3,801.78.

The early weakness on Wall Street came as a Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. consumer prices added to concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

The bigger than expected jump in inflation has solidified expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by 75 basis points later this month and increases the likelihood of another 75-basis point rate hike in September.

Later in the day, the Fed released its Beige Book, a compilation of anecdotal evidence on economic conditions in each of the twelve Fed districts, which noted U.S. economic activity has expanded at a modest pace since mid-May.

Crude oil prices shrugged off a surge in U.S. inflation and climbed higher on Wednesday, rebounding smartly after suffering a sharp loss in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $0.46 at $96.30 a barrel.