Hong Kong Shares May See Profit Taking On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 600 points or 3.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 16,340-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky to lower, weighed by pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Friday with gains across the board, especially among the financials, properties and technology shares.

For the day, the index surged 395.36 points or 2.48 percent to finish at 16,339.96 after trading between 15,937.28 and 16,394.16.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group climbed 2.38 percent, while Alibaba Health Info spiked 6.25 percent, ANTA Sports accelerated 6.23 percent, China Life Insurance collected 3.28 percent, China Mengniu Dairy soared 7.44 percent, China Resources Land rallied 5.96 percent, CITIC gained 2.21 percent, CNOOC added 0.55 percent, Country Garden surged 8.59 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical strengthened 3.67 percent, ENN Energy skyrocketed 9.33 percent, Galaxy Entertainment improved 2.58 percent, Hang Lung Properties jumped 3.82 percent, Henderson Land climbed 2.87 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas advanced 2.78 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.03 percent, JD.com spiked 4.93 percent, Lenovo rose 0.48 percent, Li Ning soared 4.94 percent, Meituan accelerated 4.63 percent. New World Development rallied 3.89 percent, Techtronic Industries was up 0.30 percent, Xiaomi Corporation surged 5.50 percent and WuXi Biologics skyrocketed 12.06 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and spent most of the session in the red before finishing under water.

The Dow dropped 145.11 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 38,627.99, while the NASDAQ tumbled 130.55 points or 0.82 percent to close at 15,775.65 and the S&P 500 sank 24.16 points or 0.48 percent to end at 5,005.57.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of a Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices in January.

Following last week's hotter-than expected consumer price inflation figures, the data added to concerns the Federal Reserve will postpone cutting interest rates longer than investors had hoped.

However, the negative sentiment was partly offset by a separate report from the University of Michigan showing an uptick in consumer sentiment in February.

Oil price climbed higher on Friday, lifting the most active WTI Crude futures to a 11-week high, on concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $1.16 at $79.19 a barrel.