Lower Open Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, tumbling almost 900 points or 4.5 percent in that span. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,530-point plateau and it's looking at another rough start again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on growing concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday with damage in all sectors, especially the technology, financial, oil and property stocks.

For the day, the index plummeted 577,33 points or 3.02 percent to finish at 18,533.05 after trading between 18,483.08 and 18,973.01.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dipped 1.39 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surrendered 3.31 percent, ANTA Sports tanked 4.40 percent, China Life Insurance skidded 2.21 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surrendered 4.10 percent, China Resources Land plunged 4.59 percent, CITIC plummeted 5.12 percent, CNOOC was down 0.69 percent, Country Garden lost 1.93 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical and Li Ning both declined 2.63 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slid 1.77 percent, Hang Lung Properties retreated 2/32 percent, Henderson Land sank 2.14 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas weakened 2.23 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tumbled 3.20 percent, JD.com slumped 2.31 percent, Lenovo shed 1/98 percent, Meituan stumbled 3.13 percent, New World Development fell 1.88 percent, Techtronic Industries slipped 1.57 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rose 0.18 percent and WuXi Biologics dropped 2.18 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests consolidation as the major averages opened firmly lower on Thursday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow plunged 366.38 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 33,922.26, while the NASDAQ tumbled 112.61 points or 0.82 percent to close at 13,679.04 and the S&P 500 sank 35.23 points or 0.79 percent to end at 4,411.59.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came as a batch of largely upbeat U.S. economic data added to concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Wednesday's hawkish Federal Reserve minutes.

Before the start of trading, payroll processor ADP released a report showing much stronger than expected private sector job growth in June. While the surge in private sector employment paints a positive picture of the economy, it also may convince the Fed to resume raising interest rates.

The Institute for Supply Management also released a report showing the pace of growth in the service sector accelerated by much more than expected in June.

Oil futures settled roughly flat on Thursday with traders weighing the impact of higher interest rates on growth and energy demand against data showing a drop in crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August settled at $71.80 a barrel, up a penny from the previous close.