Lower Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market pm Thursday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 600 points or 3 percent. The Hang Seng now rests just above the 20,080-point plateau, although it's looking at a soft start on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with profit taking expected after solid gains a day earlier - especially among the technology shares. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses are likely to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher with gains across the board, especially from the properties and technology stocks.

For the day, the index surged 471.59 points or 2.40 percent to finish at the daily high of 20,082.43 after trading as low as 19,789.96.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group spiked 4.32 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rallied 3.11 percent, ANTA Sports and Longfor both soared 5.74 percent, China Life Insurance collected 2.81 percent, China Mengniu Dairy gained 1.46 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) gathered 0.27 percent, China Resources Land dropped 0.81 percent, CITIC rose 1.18 percent, CNOOC advanced 1.99 percent, Country Garden strengthened 2.31 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical jumped 3.01 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 1.61 percent, Hang Lung Properties improved 1.36 percent, Henderson Land climbed 2.18 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas perked 0.25 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.98 percent, JD.com increased 1.28 percent, Lenovo rallied 3.33 percent, Li Ning surged 7.13 percent, Meituan accelerated 4.01 percent, New World Development jumped 2.46 percent, Techtronic Industries skyrocketed 10.86 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 4.69 percent and WuXi Biologics soared 6.43 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but were unable to hold the early gains and eventually finished mixed.

The Dow rose 27.16 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 33,336.67, while the NASDAQ sank 74.89 points or 0.58 percent to end at 12,779.91 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.97 points or 0.07 percent to close at 4,207.27.

The extended rally in early trading came after the Labor Department released a report showing an unexpected decrease in producer prices in July.

Following Wednesday's tamer than expected consumer price data, the report initially added to optimism that the Federal Reserve will slow the pace of its interest rate hikes next month.

However, subsequent comments from Fed officials seemed to downplay the data, with Chicago Fed President Charles Evans saying inflation remains "unacceptably high."

Crude oil prices rose sharply Thursday on rising hopes for energy demand after the International Energy Agency lifted its demand outlook. The dollar's weakness following the soft inflation data also contributed to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures ended higher by $2.41 or 2.6 percent at $94.34 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide final Q2 figures for gross domestic product later today; in the three months prior, GDP was down 3.0 percent on quarter and 4.0 percent on year,