Soft Start Seen For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 780 points or 4.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 17,400-point plateau and it's likely to see renewed selling pressure on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on weak earnings and slightly higher inflation. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Friday with gains across the board, especially among the financials, properties and technology stocks.

For the day, the index surged 354.13 points or 2.08 percent to finish at 17,398.73 after trading between 17,078.24 and 17,497.72.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group advanced 3.32 percent, while Alibaba Health Info jumped 3.80 percent, ANTA Sports spiked 4.54 percent, China Life Insurance sank 0.74 percent, China Mengniu Dairy climbed 3.61 percent, China Resources Land strengthened 3.77 percent, CITIC gathered 1.49 percent, CNOOC rose 0.60 percent, Country Garden soared 5.50 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical skyrocketed 10.82 percent, Galaxy Entertainment fell 0.23 percent, Hang Lung Properties accelerated 4.06 percent, Henderson Land added 3.25 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas added 0.37 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.32 percent, JD.com improved 3.36 percent, Lenovo was up 0.88 percent, Li Ning rallied 3.97 percent, Meituan increased 2.91 percent, New World Development and CLP both rose 2.12 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 2.81 percent, Xiaomi Corporation perked 1.20 percent and WuXi Biologics surged 7.30 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and finished the same way.

The Dow tumbled 366.71 points or 1.12 percent to finish at 32,417.59, while the NASDAQ added 47.41 points or 0.38 percent to close at 12,643.01 and the S&P 500 sank 19.86 points or 0.48 percent to end at 4,117.37.

For the week, the Dow dropped 2.1 percent, the S&P 500 slumped 2.5 percent and the NASDAQ stumbled 2.6 percent.

The rebound by the NASDAQ reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from Amazon (AMZN) and semiconductor giant Intel (INTC), which beat estimates - while disappointing earnings from Chevron (CVX) weighed heavily on the Dow.

Traders were also digesting a Commerce Department report showing that consumer prices rose by 0.4 percent in September, matching the increase in August. Economists had expected prices to rise by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday as tensions in the Middle East escalated with Israeli ground forces expanding operations in Gaza. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December rose $2.33 or 2.8 percent at $85.54 a barrel. WTI crude futures posted a weekly loss of 3.6 percent.