Hong Kong Shares Likely To Halt Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, stumbling almost 1,100 points or 4.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 23,690-point plateau although it's due for support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat thanks to ongoing tariff concerns. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely higher, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board, especially among the pharmaceuticals, industrials and technology stocks.

For the day, the index plunged 530.18 points or 2.19 percent to finish at 23,689.72 after trading between 23,577.78 and 24,230.72.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tanked 3.54 percent, while Alibaba Health Info and Lenovo both surrendered 3.25 percent, ANTA Sports cratered 4.29 percent, China Life Insurance slid 0.50 percent, China Mengniu Dairy shed 0.94 percent, China Resources Land sank 1.15 percent, CITIC lost 0.82 percent, CKI Holdings added 0.63 percent, CLP Holdings rose 0.24 percent, CNOOC eased 0.11 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plummeted 6.37 percent, ENN Energy jumped 1.54 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dipped 0.46 percent, Haier Smart Home tumbled 2.83 percent, Hang Lung Properties declined 2.65 percent, Henderson Land skidded 1.74 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dropped 1.20 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.71 percent, JD.com retreated 2.75 percent, Li Auto and WuXi Biologics both plunged 4.70 percent, Li Ning crashed 3.55 percent, Meituan was down 0.30 percent, New World Development weakened 2.28 percent, Nongfu Spring slumped 1.98 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.37 percent and Xiaomi Corporation stumbled 3.19 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly positive as the major averages spent almost all of Friday in the red before peeking into the green just before the close.

The Dow added 32.05 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 41,985.35, while the NASDAQ gained 92.45 points or 0.52 percent to close at 17,784.05 and the S&P 500 perked 4.67 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,667.56.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.2 percent, while the S&P and the NASDAQ both ended four-week losing streaks, rising by 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the economic outlook along with rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Friday on geopolitical tensions after new U.S. sanctions against a Chinese refinery that purchased Iranian oil. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery climbed $0.23 or 0.3 percent to $68.30 a barrel.