Profit Taking May Dent Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, accelerating more than 1,080 points or 5.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,900-point plateau although investors figure to cash in on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on recession concerns and the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S, bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the technology stocks, oil companies, financials and properties.

For the day, the index surged 450.67 points or 2.32 percent to finish at 19,900.87 after trading between 19,404.50 and 19,926.48.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group jumped 2.74 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plunged 4.37 percent, ANTA Sports rallied 3.19 percent, China Life Insurance collected 2.14 percent, China Mengniu Dairy strengthened 2.65 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) and CK Infrastructure both advanced 1.37 percent, China Resources Land skyrocketed 10.76 percent, CITIC climbed 2.34 percent, CNOOC rose 0.10 percent, Country Garden surged 9,86 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 2.12 percent, Galaxy Entertainment gained 0.57 percent, Hang Lung Properties soared 4.02 percent, Henderson Land jumped 1.92 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas spiked 4.81 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, JD.com added 1.20 percent, Lenovo rallied 1.80 percent, Li Ning fell 0.32 percent, Longfor skyrocketed 18.47 percent, Meituan soared 5.72 percent, New World Development surged 6.71 percent, Techtronic Industries improved 1.39 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 3.99 percent and WuXi Biologics tumbled 2.97 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened in the red, ticked higher midday but slumped going into the close.

The Dow dropped 305.04 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 33,476.46, while the NASDAQ sank 77.38 points or 0.70 percent to close at 11,004.62 and the S&P 500 lost 29.13 points or 0.73 percent to end at 3,934.38.

For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 4.0 percent, the S&P sank 3.4 percent and the Dow dropped 2.8 percent.

The late-day weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to this week's highly anticipated Federal Reserve meeting.

While the Fed is widely expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes to 50 basis points, traders have recently expressed concerns about how much further the Fed will need to raise rates in order to contain inflation.

Adding to concerns about the outlook for interest rates, the Labor Department said U.S producer prices increased more than expected last month. But the negative sentiment was partly offset by a report from the University of Michigan showing a decrease in consumers' inflation expectations.

Crude oil futures fell on Friday. weighed down by concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a possible global economic recession amid policy tightening by central banks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $0.44 or 0.6 percent at $71.02 a barrel. WTI crude futures sank 11.6 percent in the week.