Higher Open Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 450 points or 2.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,420-point plateau and it's expected to extend its gains on Monday.

The global forecast for Asian markets is positive, with bargain hunting expected after some heavy selling last week. The European and U.S. markets were up on Friday and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday as the financials, properties and technology stocks ended mostly in the green.

For the day, the index added 56.61 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 19,423.61 after trading between 19,312.41 and 19,658.20.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group was up 0.30 percent, while Alibaba Health Info jumped 2.24 percent, ANTA Sports climbed 1.79 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.96 percent, China Mengniu Dairy strengthened 2.04 percent, China Resources Land gained 0.44 percent, CITIC and CNOOC both gathered 0.35 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rose 0.40 percent, Galaxy Entertainment surged 4.07 percent, Haier Smart Home added 0.57 percent, Hang Lung Properties improved 1.61 percent, Henderson Land slumped 1.21 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China picked up 0.22 percent, JD.com advanced 1.13 percent, Lenovo perked 0.33 percent, Li Auto soared 3.82 percent, Li Ning rallied 2.31 percent, Meituan tumbled 2.03 percent, New World Development plummeted 5.99 percent, Nongfu Spring spiked 3.60 percent, Techtronic Industries increased 1.20 percent, Xiaomi Corporation lost 0.36 percent, WuXi Biologics accelerated 2.32 percent and Hong Kong & China Gas was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages returned from Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday by opening in the green on Friday and continuing to pick up steam as the shortened session progressed, ending near the day's highs.

The Dow jumped 188.59 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 44,910.65, while the NASDAQ rallied 157.69 points or 0.83 percent to close at 19,218.17 and the S&P 500 gained 33.64 points or 0.56 percent to end at 6,032.38.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 both jumped 1.1 percent, while the narrower Dow surged 1.4 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as some traders looked to pick up stocks at relatively reduced levels following pullback seen on Wednesday.

Semiconductor stocks led the rebound, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbing by 1.5 percent after hitting its lowest intraday level in over two months in the previous session.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Friday after OPEC postponed its meeting to Dec. 5, despite expectations the group will delay production increases. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January shed $0.72 or 1.1 percent at $68.00 a barrel. WTI crude futures lost 4.5 percent in the week.