Hong Kong Bourse Due For Support On Friday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Thursday's holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival, the Hong Kong stock market had finished lower in three straight sessions, tumbling more than 820 points or 4.2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 19,220-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Friday.

The global forecast is murky on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the financial, property and technology sectors.

For the day, the index plummeted 388.73 points or 1.98 percent to finish at 19,218.35 after trading between 19,174.16 and 19,377.69.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group and China Mengniu Dairy both plunged 4.13 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tanked 3.93 percent, ANTA Sports plummeted 5.46 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 1.35 percent, China Resources Land fell 0.89 percent, CITIC slumped 2.46 percent, CNOOC dipped 0.71 percent, Country Garden surrendered 3.34 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical retreated 2.97 percent, Galaxy Entertainment sank 1.31 percent, Hang Lung Properties lost 0.93 percent, Henderson Land weakened 1.45 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas skidded 1.42 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eased 0.24 percent, JD.com plunged 4.74 percent, Lenovo slid 0.85 percent, Li Ning plummeted 5.38 percent, Meituan tumbled 3.55 percent, New World Development shed 1.19 percent, Techtronic Industries added 0.48 percent, Xiaomi Corporation declined 3.02 percent and WuXi Biologics stumbled 2.58 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and spent much of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed.

The Dow dipped 4.81 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 33,946.71, while the NASDAQ jumped 128.41 points or 0.95 percent to end ay 13,630.61 and the S&P 500 added 16.20 points or 0.37 percent to close at 4,381.89.

Buying interest may also have been generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing initial jobless claims held at their highest level since October 2021 last week.

With the Federal Reserve repeatedly warning about the impact of labor market tightness, the data may have added to optimism the central bank will not follow through on plans to continue raising interest rates.

Lingering concerns about rates limited the upside, however, as the Bank of England raised rates more aggressively, hiking rates by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Thursday as interest rate hikes and inflation concerns raised concerns about the outlook for fuel demand, while a stronger greenback also weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $3.02 or 4.1 percent at $69.51 a barrel.