Renewed Consolidation Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market bounced higher again on Tuesday, one day after ending the three-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 600 points or 3.8 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just shy of the 16,250-point plateau although it's likely to head south again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continued profit taking and pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index gained 91.90 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 16,247.51 after trading between 16,055.08 and 16,274.56.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group and Techtronic Industries both advanced 0.91 percent, while Alibaba Health Info skyrocketed 4.24 percent, ANTA Sports perked 0.07 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.06 percent, China Mengniu Dairy spiked 2.17 percent, China Resources Land dropped 0.81 percent, CITIC jumped 1.80 percent, CNOOC soared 3.32 percent, Country Garden rose 0.17 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical strengthened 1.15 percent, Galaxy Entertainment accelerated 2.03 percent, Hang Lung Properties improved 0.73 percent, Henderson Land climbed 0.95 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gained 0.84 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rallied 1.53 percent, JD.com dipped 0.16 percent, Lenovo tumbled 1.55 percent, Li Ning slumped 1.13 percent, Meituan added 0.89 percent, New World Development sank 0.32 percent, Xiaomi Corporation increased 0.46 percent and WuXi Biologics surged 3.73 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely remained that way, finishing solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 64.19 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 38,563.80, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.87 points or 0.92 percent to end at 15,630.78 and the S&P 500 sank 30.06 points or 0.60 percent to close at 4,975.51.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing anxiety about the outlook for interest rates following last week's hotter-than-expectation inflation data.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point in March, while the chances of a quarter point rate cut in early May have fallen to 33.8 percent.

Meanwhile, a strong gain by Walmart (WMT) helped limit the downside for the Dow, with the retail giant surging by 3.2 percent after reporting fourth quarter results that exceeded estimates and announcing a deal to acquire TV maker Vizio (VZIO) for $2.3 billion.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Tuesday, reflecting ongoing concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery slumped $1.01 to $78.18 a barrel, while the more actively traded crude for April delivery tumbled $1.42 to $77.04 a barrel.