Overbought Hang Seng Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market rebounded hard on Wednesday, one day after snapping the three-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 820 points or 3.9 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 21,860-point plateau although it's looking at a soft start on Thursday.

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

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday with gains across the board, especially among the property and technology sectors.

For the day, the index surged 56.06 points or 2.64 percent to finish at 21,857.92 after trading between 21,411.09 and 21,858.83.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group surged 8.48 percent, while Alibaba Health Info skyrocketed 10.83 percent, ANTA Sports stumbled 1.58 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 3.38 percent, China Resources Land spiked 5.96 percent, CITIC improved 2.97 percent, CNOOC rose 0.85 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical perked 0.22 percent, Galaxy Entertainment gained 1.41 percent, Haier Smart Home gathered 0.40 percent, Hang Lung Properties strengthened 3.95 percent, Henderson Land rallied 4.31 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas increased 1.68 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 2.56 percent, JD.com slumped 1.51 percent, Lenovo and Techtronic Industries both accelerated 5.26 percent, Li Auto picked up 1.20 percent, Li Ning added 1.54 percent, Meituan plummeted 4.08 percent, New World Development soared 6.37 percent, Nongfu Spring jumped 4.09 percent, Xiaomi Corporation climbed 3.64 percent, WuXi Biologics was up 0.23 percent and China Mengniu Dairy and CKI Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened lower and largely stayed that way, although the NASDAQ peeked up into the green by the close.

The Dow dropped 225.09 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 44,368.56, while the NASDAQ perked 6.10 points or 0.03 percent to close at 19,649.95 and the S&P 500 lost 16.53 points or 0.27 percent to end at 6,051.97.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing consumer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in January.

The hotter than expected inflation data increased speculation the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates on hold for a prolonged period.

Oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday, weighed down by data showing a larger than expected increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures settled lower by $1.95 or about 2.66 percent at $71.37 a barrel, falling after three successive days of gains.