Soft Start Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, stumbling more than 130 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,960-point plateau and it may take further damage on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and properties.

For the day, the index slumped 120.45 points or 0.71 percent to finish at 16,961.66 after trading between 16,878.11 and 17,209.82.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dropped 0.74 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tanked 1.73 percent, ANTA Sports dipped 0.19 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 1.11 percent, China Mengniu Dairy fell 0.30 percent, China Resources Land surged 3.25 percent, CITIC retreated 1.32 percent, CNOOC climbed 0.80 percent, Country Garden declined 1.19 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical jumped 1.86 percent, Galaxy Entertainment lost 0.37 percent, Hang Lung Properties advanced 0.79 percent, Henderson Land slid 0.21 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas sank 0.67 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.50 percent, JD.com rose 0.09 percent, Lenovo plunged 2.54 percent, Li Ning added 0.70 percent, Meituan tumbled 1.54 percent, New World Development eased 0.10 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 0.96 percent, Xiaomi Corporation skidded 1.07 percent, WuXi Biologics plummeted 13.08 percent and CK Infrastructure was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly headed south and stayed modestly lower for the rest of the day.

The Dow dropped 137.66 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 28,905.66, while the NASDAQ sank 49.24 points or 0.30 percent to close at 16,128.53 and the S&P 500 fell 14.83 points or 0.29 percent to end at 5,150.48.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the Federal Reserve further postponing its first interest rate cut following the release of hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data for February.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report showing retail sales rebounded in February, although the increase fell short of estimates.

Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday, extending gains from the previous day as the International Energy Agency (IEA) upwardly raised its global demand growth forecast. West Texas International Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.54 or 1.9 percent at $81.26 a barrel.