Soft Start Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday ended the seven-day losing streak in which it had plummeted almost 1,650 points or 8.6 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 17,800-point plateau although it may hand back some of those gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for the economy and for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index jumped 167.72 points or 0.95 percent to finish at 17,791.01 after trading between 17,573.70 and 17,965.26.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group accelerated 1.93 percent, while Alibaba Health Info spiked 2.80 percent, ANTA Sports tumbled 1.02 percent, China Life Insurance increased 0.90 percent, China Mengniu Dairy gathered 0.20 percent, China Resources Land gained 0.49 percent, CITIC rose 0.40 percent, CNOOC perked 0.16 percent, Country Garden surged 2.97 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical added 0.53 percent, Galaxy Entertainment soared 2.93 percent, Hang Lung Properties jumped 1.90 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas lost 0.34 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.19 percent, JD.com climbed 1.78 percent, Lenovo rallied 2.55 percent, Li Ning plummeted 3.25 percent, Meituan advanced 1.73 percent, New World Development sank 0.59 percent, Techtronic Industries skyrocketed 3.12 percent, Xiaomi Corporation improved 1.41 percent, WuXi Biologics strengthened 1.88 percent and Henderson Land was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and quickly turned lower, although the NASDAQ managed to finish in the green.

The Dow dropped 174.86 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 34,288.83, while the NASDAQ rose 8.28 points or 0.06 percent to close at 13,505.87 and the S&P 500 slipped 12.22 points or 0.28 percent to end at 4,387.55.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders continued to look ahead to the economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later this week.

Early volatility in the bond market may also have contributed to the choppy trading, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note showing wild swings back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing modestly lower.

In economic news, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales in the U.S. slumped much more than expected in July.

Crude oil futures eased on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September slipped $0.37 or 0.5 percent at $80.35 a barrel.