Win Streak Likely To End For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has tracked higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering more than 350 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,980-point plateau although it's likely to run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over growth and on the U.S. debt ceiling. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished slightly higher on Tuesday as gains from the technology and financial companies were offset by weakness from the property sector.

For the day, the index picked up 7.12 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 19,978.25 after trading between 19,891.49 and 20,183.28.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group gained 0.35 percent, while Alibaba Health Info sank 0.59 percent, ANTA Sports tumbled 1.25 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 1.97 percent, China Mengniu Dairy retreated 1.24 percent, China Resources Land fell 0.29 percent, CITIC skidded 0.98 percent, CNOOC added 0.47 percent, Country Garden plunged 1.98 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rose 0.26 percent, Galaxy Entertainment perked 0.10 percent, Hang Lung Properties dropped 0.76 percent, Henderson Land shed 0.54 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slumped 0.67 percent, JD.com surged 4.04 percent, Lenovo eased 0.26 percent, Li Ning plummeted 2.33 percent, Meituan advanced 0.81 percent, New World Development lost 0.50 percent, Techtronic Industries jumped 1.27 percent, Xiaomi Corporation climbed 0.90 percent, WuXi Biologics rallied 0.97 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and CK Infrastructure were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday. The NASDAQ spent some time in positive territory but they all finished solidly in the red.

The Dow plunged 336.46 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 33,012.14, while the NASDAQ dipped 22.16 points or 0.18 percent to end at 12,345.05 and the S&P 500 sank 26.38 points or 0.64 percent to close at 4,109.90.

The steep drop by the Dow was partly due to a decrease by shares of Home Depot (HD), with the home improvement retailer falling by 2.2 percent after it reported weaker than expected first quarter revenues and lowered its full-year guidance.

Ongoing concerns about the U.S. debt ceiling also generated some negative sentiment as President Joe Biden meets with top congressional leaders with no resolution.

Traders were also reacting to a mixed batch of U.S. economic data, including separate reports showing weaker than expected retail sales growth and an unexpected increase in industrial output.

Oil prices drifted lower Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand following disappointing Chinese data. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.25 or 0.4 percent at $70.86 a barrel.