Hong Kong Shares May See Renewed Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday snapped the four-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 1,230 points or 6 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 18,600-point plateau although it's looking at a soft start again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking expected ahead of key jobs data from the United States later in the week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index gained 44.67 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 18,595.78 after trading between 18,369.93 and 18,666.71.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group strengthened 1.29 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rallied 1.94 percent, ANTA Sports was up 0.18 percent, China Life Insurance slid 0.44 percent, China Mengniu Dairy climbed 0.99 percent, China Resources Land rose 0.33 percent, CITIC tumbled 1.06 percent, CNOOC sank 0.81 percent, Country Garden surged 2.97 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical skidded 0.87 percent, Galaxy Entertainment spiked 2.14 percent, Hang Lung Properties soared 2.28 percent, Henderson Land plunged 2.81 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slumped 0.96 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.47 percent, JD.com jumped 1.64 percent, Lenovo eased 0.13 percent, Li Ning added 0.46 percent, Meituan advanced 0.52 percent, New World Development gained 0.42 percent, Techtronic Industries dropped 0.82 percent, Xiaomi Corporation collected 0.19 percent and WuXi Biologics lost 0.71 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is not encouraging as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but started to trend lower as the day progressed, with the Dow finishing in the red.

The Dow shed 50.56 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 33,042.78, while the NASDAQ rose 41.74 points or 0.32 percent to close at 13,017.43 and the S&P 500 perked 0.07 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,205.52.

The early strength on Wall Street materialized on the weekend's news that an agreement had been reached to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous default by the U.S. government.

Much of that had already been priced in, however, and stocks faded ahead of Friday's jobs report amid concerns about further interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Conference Board said consumer confidence in the U.S. saw a modest decrease from an upwardly revised level in May.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, weighed down by doubts about China's economic recovery and uncertainty over whether the Congress will pass the debt deal this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $69.46 a barrel.