Lower Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in three consecutive sessions, stumbling almost 700 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 19,700-point plateau and it's expected to extend its losses again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of the FOMC's interest rate decision later today. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion, although bargain hunting may take hold later in the day.

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

For the day, the index lost 95.01 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 19,700.48 after trading between 19,620.63 and 19,930.83.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group and CITIC both slumped 1.13 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tanked 2.27 percent, ANTA Sports dropped 0.80 percent, China Life Insurance slid 0.41 percent, China Mengniu Dairy eased 0.11 percent, China Resources Land skidded 1.09 percent, CNOOC jumped 1.68 percent, Galaxy Entertainment stumbled 1.30 percent, Haier Smart Home sank 0.74 percent, Hang Lung Properties retreated 1.27 percent, Henderson Land surrendered 1.44 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dipped 0.21 percent, JD.com declined 1.25 percent, Lenovo shed 0.65 percent, Li Auto slipped 0.23 percent, Li Ning advanced 0.84 percent, Meituan lost 0.63 percent, New World Development weakened 1.22 percent, Nongfu Spring fell 0.42 percent, Techtronic Industries plunged 2.44 percent, Xiaomi Corporation tumbled 1.32 percent, WuXi Biologics plummeted 2.55 percent and CSPC Pharmaceutical and Hong Kong & China Gas were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 267.58 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 43,449.90, while the NASDAQ sank 64.83 points or 0.32 percent to close at 20,109.06 and the S&P 500 lost 23.47 points or 0.39 percent to end at 6,050.61.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected a pullback by technology stocks, which had led the way higher in the previous session - particularly among the networking and semiconductor stocks. Telecom, financial, housing and steel stocks also moved to the downside.

Meanwhile, traders continued to look ahead to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement later today. While the Fed is widely expected to lower rates by another quarter-point, traders will pay close attention to the Fed's statement and latest economic projections, including their forecasts for rates.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for global demand, and possible excess supply in the market next year. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January ended down $0.63 or 0.9 percent at $70.08 a barrel.