Hong Kong Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day losing streak in which it had tumbled more than 840 points or 4 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 22,070-point plateau and it's expected to open higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat after the Federal Reserve didn't raise its benchmark lending rate more than expected on Wednesday. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were firmly higher and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology stocks, oil companies and properties.

For the day, the index rallied 229.85 points or 1.05 percent to finish at the daily high of 22,072.18 after moving as low as 21,703.60.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group advanced 2.23 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rose 1.15 percent, ANTA Sports fell 0.25 percent, China Mengniu Dairy jumped 2.91 percent, China Resources Land added 1.60 percent, CITIC gained 1.20 percent, CNOOC increased 2.11 percent, Country Garden improved 2.36 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical perked 0.89 percent, Galaxy Entertainment spiked 3.68 percent, Hang Lung Properties strengthened 2.85 percent, Henderson Land gained 0.35 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas rose 0.38 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.95 percent, JD.com and WuXi Biologics both climbed 2.76 percent, Lenovo was up 0.64 percent, Li Ning collected 0.52 percent, Meituan rallied 3.15 percent, New World Development gathered 2.14 percent, Techtronic Industries surged 5.57 percent, Xiaomi Corporation soared 4.49 percent and China Life Insurance was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened slightly lower on Wednesday and spent most of the day that way before a late push bumped them into the green.

The Dow rose 6.92 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 23,092.96, while the NASDAQ surged 231.77 points or 2.00 percent to close at 11,816.32 and the S&P 500 jumped 42.61 points or 1.05 percent to end at 4,119.21.

The late-day rally on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to raise interest rates by another quarter point and signaled further rate hikes. The latest interest rate hike comes after the central bank raised rates by 75 basis points in November and by 50 basis points in December.

The Fed also said it anticipates ongoing increases in interest rates will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent over time.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP said private sector job growth slowed more than expected in January. Also, the Institute for Supply Management said activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted for the third consecutive month in January.

Oil prices fell to a three-week low on Wednesday, weighed down by data showing an increase in crude inventories last week in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March sank $2.46 or 3.1 percent at $76.41 a barrel.