Hong Kong Bourse Tipped To Open Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, tumbling more than 350 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,180-point plateau although it's looking at another soft start again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautious ahead of key inflation data coming later this week. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties and technology stocks.

For the day, the index plummeted 353.75 points or 1.81 percent to finish at 19,184.17 after trading between 19,112.61 and 19,370.80.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group stumbled 2.67 percent, while Alibaba Health Info lost 1.43 percent, ANTA Sports was down 1.03 percent, China Life Insurance sank 2.07 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 3.94 percent, China Resources Land declined 3.14 percent, CITIC skidded 2.26 percent, CNOOC added 0.37 percent, Country Garden plummeted 9.68 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical weakened 2.53 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dipped 1.17 percent, Hang Lung Properties rose 0.18 percent, Henderson Land slid 1.30 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas eased 0.78 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dove 1.10 percent, JD.com plunged 4.38 percent, Lenovo retreated 2.85 percent, Li Ning surrendered 3.42 percent, Meituan tumbled 3.18 percent, New World Development slumped 2.58 percent, Techtronic Industries shed 2.00 percent, Xiaomi Corporation dropped 2.11 percent and WuXi Biologics fell 1.37 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, made back some ground as the day progressed but still finished solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 158.64 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 35,314.49, while the NASDAQ slumped 110.07 points or 0.79 percent to close at 13,884.32 and the S&P 500 sank 19.06 points or 0.42 percent to end at 4,499.38.

The soft start on Wall Street may have been in response to the downward revision in the ratings of ten smaller banks by Moody's.

The markets got a bit of a boost when the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected U.S. GDP growth to rise by 1.9% this year; it also forecast a bump in the price forecast for oil prices.

In economic news, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to a three-month low of $65.5 billion in June, from a downwardly revised $68.3 billion in May. Also, the National Federation of Independent Business said the NFIB Small Business Optimism index rose for a third straight month in July.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday following an upgrade to this year's GDP growth projections in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $0.98 at $82.92 a barrel.