Win Streak May End For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 500 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng now sits just beneath the 20,200-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks expected to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit. The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies. For the day, the index improved 131.58 points or 0.66 percent to finish at 20,197.77 after trading between 20,118.02 and 20,296.94. Among the actives, Alibaba Group and ENN Energy Holdings both soared 2.95 percent, while Alibaba Health Info advanced 1.17 percent, ANTA Sports gained 0.80 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.41 percent, China Mengniu Dairy picked up 0.39 percent, China Resources Land rallied 1.72 percent, CITIC sank 0.45 percent, CNOOC climbed 1.19 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical strengthened 1.58 percent, Galaxy Entertainment surged 3.31 percent, Haier Smart Home spiked 2.16 percent, Hang Lung Properties skyrocketed 4.37 percent, Henderson Land perked 0.23 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas improved 1.35 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China jumped 1.71 percent, JD.com added 1.03 percent, Lenovo was up 0.21 percent, Li Auto accelerated 2.56 percent, Li Ning lost 0.25 percent, Meituan eased 0.20 percent, New World Development gathered 0.48 percent, Nongfu Spring oved up 0.14 percent, Techtronic Industries tumbled 1.42 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rose 0.68 percent and WuXi Biologics increased 1.21 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is pretty awful as the major averages opened under water on Monday. The Dow managed to climb into positive territory, but the NASDAQ and S&P 500 finished with heavy losses.

The Dow advanced 289.33 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 44,713.58, while the NASDAQ plummeted 612.47 points or 3.07 percent to close at 19,341.83 and the S&P 500 sank 88.96 points or 1.46 percent to end at 6,012.28.

The sell-off On Wall Street came amid substantial weakness among technology stocks, with AI darling and sector leader Nvidia (NVDA) leading the way lower. The plunge by Nvidia comes after Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI Assistant overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple's App Store in the United States.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates also weighed on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

While the Fed is almost universally expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. Recent economic data has led to concerns about the Fed leaving rates on hold for a prolonged period.

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid concerns about tariff threats and uncertainty about U.S. trade policy. Also, weak manufacturing data from China has raised concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March closed down $1.49 or 2 percent at $73.17 a barrel.