Bargain Hunting Poised To Boost Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after snapping the four-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 925 points or 5 percent. Now at a fresh 11-year closing low, the Hang Seng Index sits just above the 17,250-point plateau although it's overdue for support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat following news of bond market intervention from the Bank of England. The European and U.S. markets were up and the oversold Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday with losses in all sectors, especially among the property and technology stocks.

For the day, the index plummeted 609.43 points or 3.41 percent to finish at 17,250.88 after trading between 17,184.54 and 17,703.39.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group plunged 4.11 percent, while Alibaba Health Info slumped 2.63 percent, ANTA Sports skidded 2.51 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 2.14 percent, China Mengniu Dairy fell 1.09 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) declined 2.93 percent, China Resources Land surrendered 3.42 percent, CITIC lost 1.60 percent, CNOOC sank 1.98 percent, Country Garden plummeted 11.83 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical added 0.41 percent, Galaxy Entertainment stumbled 2.64 percent, Hang Lung Properties tanked 4.23 percent, Henderson Land retreated 3.90 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas declined 3.82 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 2.42 percent, JD.com tumbled 5.63 percent, Lenovo dropped 1.71 percent, Li Ning sank 1.38 percent, Longfor and CLP Holdings both surrendered 5.19 percent, Meituan slumped 3.10 percent, New World Development plunged 6.32 percent, Techtronic Industries tanked 5.94 percent, Xiaomi Corporation retreated 3.72 percent and WuXi Biologics lost 1.12 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but accelerated shortly thereafter to finish solidly in the green.

The Dow surged 548.75 points or 1.88 percent to finish at 29,683.74, while the NASDAQ soared 222.13 points or 2.05 percent to end at 11,051.64 and the S&P 500 jumped 71.75 points or 1.97 percent to close at 3,719.04.

The rally on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to the Bank of England's plans to begin temporarily purchasing long-dated U.K. government bonds to address dysfunction in the gilt market. In addition, the BoE postponed the selling of bonds held under the quantitative easing program to October 31.

Long-term U.K. bond yields have pulled back following the news, while U.S. treasury yields also moved sharply lower after surging in recent sessions. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note showed a steep drop after briefly topping 4.0 percent for the first time in over 12 years.

Stocks also benefited from a significant pullback by the U.S. dollar, with the U.S. dollar index tumbling by 1.2 percent. The greenback had recently reached new 20-year highs.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Wednesday after data showed a dip in U.S. crude inventories last week, and the dollar's sharp drop also contributed to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $3.65 or 4.7 percent at $82.15 a barrel.