Bargain Hunting May Boost Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, retreating more than 480 points or 2.6 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,280-point plateau although it's due for support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat and directionless on conflicting leads over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Wednesday as the property and technology stocks were mostly in the red.

For the day, the index dropped 167.74 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 19,279.84 after trading between 19,111.54 and 19,483.59.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group shed 0.61 percent, while Alibaba Health Info and CLP Holdings both slid 0.31 percent, ANTA Sports declined 1.76 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 1.00 percent, China Mengniu Dairy retreated 1.83 percent, China Resources Land sank 0.68 percent, CITIC lost 0.59 percent, CNOOC rose 0.21 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 2.00 percent, Galaxy Entertainment skidded 1.04 percent, Haier Smart Home soared 2.85 percent, Hang Lung Properties eased 0.16 percent, Henderson Land surrendered 2.18 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.49 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.61 percent, JD.com gained 0.22 percent, Lenovo tumbled 1.95 percent, Li Auto slumped 1.40 percent, Li Ning rallied 0.74 percent, Meituan weakened 1.34 percent, New World Development tanked 2.65 percent, Nongfu Spring added 0.31 percent, Techtronic Industries plummeted 4.72 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plunged 3.95 percent and WuXi Biologics jumped 1.85 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests little movement as the major averages opened slightly lower on Wednesday, bounced back and forth across the line all day before ending mixed and largely unchanged.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates following the release of mixed U.S. jobs data.

While payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector job growth slowed more than expected in December, the Labor Department said weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in almost 11 months.

While the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting later in the day, they did not provide much insight into the outlook for interest rates other than to suggest officials plan to take a "careful approach" to future decisions.

Oil futures closed lower on Wednesday as a sharp increase in gasoline stockpiles and a stronger dollar weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended lower by $0.93 or 1.25 percent at $73.32 a barrel.