Hong Kong Shares Due For Support On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after snapping the three-day losing streak in which it had plunged almost 720 points or 4.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 16,350-point plateau and it's likely to see renewed support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher ahead of key employment data from the United States later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets also figure to track higher.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and properties.

For the day, the index sank 117.37 points or 0.71 percent to finish at 16,345.89 after trading between 16,157.98 and 16,376.44.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group fell 0.64 percent, while Alibaba Health Info slipped 0.47 percent, ANTA Sports tanked 2.57 percent, China Life Insurance sank 0.98 percent, China Mengniu Dairy lost 0.70 percent, China Resources Land shed 0.74 percent, CITIC retreated 2.06 percent, CNOOC plunged 2.66 percent, Country Garden skidded 1.19 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plummeted 3.65 percent, Galaxy Entertainment rose 0.12 percent, Hang Lung Properties stumbled 1.32 percent, Henderson Land and Haier Smart Home both dropped 1.16 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slid 0.56 percent, JD.com advanced 0.58 percent, Lenovo surrendered 2.25 percent, Li Ning added 0.23 percent, Meituan eased 0.35 percent, New World Development was down 0.36 percent, Techtronic Industries declined 1.64 percent, Xiaomi Corporation slumped 1.34 percent, WuXi Biologics tumbled 2.44 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday and largely stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow gained 62.95 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 36,117.38, while the NASDAQ surged 193.28 points or 1.37 percent to end at 14,339.99 and the S&P 500 added 36.25 points or 0.80 percent to close at 4,585.59.

The strength on Wall Street reflected ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The jobs report could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the jobs data to provide further evidence the central bank could cut rates as soon as March 2024.

Oil futures settled slightly lower Thursday amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand due to global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.04 at $69.34 a barrel.