Hong Kong Shares May See Continued Consolidation On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, slumping more than 340 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 25,270-point plateau and it may continue to sputter on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid a cloudy outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday as the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies ended mostly in the red.

For the day, the index dropped 249.23 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 25,270.07 after trading between 25,167.81 and 25,356.54.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group stumbled 3.04 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surged 4.92 percent, ANTA Sports fell 0.59 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 3.13 percent, China Mengniu Dairy shed 0.84 percent, China Resources Land jumped 2.03 percent, CITIC surrendered 2.76 percent, CNOOC dipped 0.47 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical soared 4.88 percent, Galaxy Entertainment skidded 1.10 percent, Haier Smart Home slid 0.55 percent, Hang Lung Properties dropped 0.98 percent, Henderson Land plummeted 4.63 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slumped 1.79 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tanked 3.09 percent, JD.com plunged 3.44 percent, Lenovo eased 0.09 percent, Li Auto sank 0.94 percent, Li Ning slipped 0.11 percent, Meituan declined 2.17 percent, New World Development tumbled 2.54 percent, Nongfu Spring retreated 2.34 percent, Techtronic Industries added 0.59 percent, Xiaomi Corporation lost 0.66 percent and WuXi Biologics gained 0.39 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session, ending on opposite sides of the unchanged line.

The Dow added 34.82 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 44,946.12, while the NASDAQ sank 87.72 points or 0.40 percent to close at 21,622.98 and the S&P 500 fell 18.74 points or 0.29 percent to end at 6,449.80. For the week, the NASDAQ added 0.8 percent, the S&P gained 0.9 percent and the Dow jumped 1.7 percent.

The weakness in the broader markets followed the release of mixed batch of U.S. economic data, which has led to some uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

While the Commerce Department said retail sales increased in line with estimates in July, the University of Michigan noted an unexpected deterioration in consumer sentiment in August.

On the inflation front, year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.9 percent in August from 4.5 in July, while the Labor Department said import prices increased more than expected last month and the Federal Reserve saw a slight pullback by industrial production in July.

Crude oil traded lower on Friday ahead of the meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Russia, which ultimately accomplished nothing. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.20 or 1.88 percent at $62.76 per barrel.