No Relief Yet For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, giving away more than 450 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 20,425-point plateau and it's expected to take further damage on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuing anxiety over the outlook for interest rates and tumbling oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to open under pressure.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and oil companies.

For the day, the index lost 105.65 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 20,423.84 after trading between 20,344.86 and 20,620.98.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group surrendered 2.36 percent, while Alibaba Health Info weakened 1.19 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 1.57 percent, China Mengniu Dairy sank 0.97 percent, China Resources Land shed 0.93 percent, CITIC retreated 1.64 percent, CNOOC lost 0.86 percent, Country Garden and JD.com both plunged 3.00 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 1.50 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 0.19 percent, Hang Lung Properties tanked 2.98 percent, Henderson Land jumped 1.64 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas was down 1.07 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slid 0.50 percent, Lenovo and Haier Smart Home both dropped 1.01 percent, Li Ning fell 0.80 percent, Meituan rose 0.14 percent, New World Development and CK Infrastructure both skidded 1.16 percent, Techtronic Industries plummeted 6.94 percent, Xiaomi Corporation tumbled 2.55 percent, WuXi Biologics declined 2.05 percent and ANTA Sports was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but faded late, allowing only the NASDAQ to finish in the green.

The Dow shed 84.50 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 33,045.09, while the NASDAQ rose 14.77 points or 0.13 percent to close at 11,507.07 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.29 points or 0.16 percent to end at 3,991.05.

The mixed close on Wall Street followed the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent monetary policy meeting. The minutes revealed a "few participants" favored raising rates by 50 basis points versus the 25 basis point rate hike that was ultimately announced.

The minutes noted all participants continued to anticipate that ongoing rate increases would be appropriate to achieve the Fed's dual goals of maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Wednesday, extending their losing streak to six consecutive sessions on concerns about the outlook for global demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery plunged $2.41 or 3.1 percent to $73.95 a barrel on its first day as the front month contract.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see January figures for consumer prices later today, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.90 percent on year, easing from 2.00 percent in December.