Rally May Stall For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, collecting more than 430 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Hang Seng now sits just beneath the 23,400-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with tech weakness countered by sinking oil prices. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the commerce and industrial stocks were capped by weakness among the properties, utilities and financials.

For the day, the index gained 98.90 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 23,393.32 after trading between 23,271.26 and 23,543.30.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspiring as the major averages opened higher on Monday but faded throughout the session before ending mixed.

The Dow climbed 213.67 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 51,983.98, while the NASDAQ tumbled 272.68 points or 1.07 percent to close at 25,164.32 and the S&P 500 shed 38.67 points or 0.51 percent to end at 7,541.40.

The significant downturn by the NASDAQ came amid continued weakness among tech stocks, as worries about the outlook for the artificial intelligence weighed on the sector once again.

Outside of the tech sector, energy stocks moved sharply lower along with the price of crude oil, dragging the Philadelphia Oil Service Index and the NYSE Arca Oil Index down by 5.1 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Monday on reports that discussions are ongoing to settle the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $7.76 or 7.45 percent at $96.36 per barrel.

In U.S. economic news, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing its reading on U.S. manufacturing activity increased by more than expected in the month of October.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see preliminary Q3 figures for gross domestic product and September numbers for retail sales later today. In Q2, GDP was down 0.6 percent on quarter and up 4.3 percent on year, while sales climbed 5.6 percent on year in August.