Hong Kong Shares Poised To End Two-Day Slide

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in consecutive trading days, tumbling almost 630 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 25,200-point plateau although it may find traction on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, with strength likely from the oil and technology sectors. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to also move to the upside.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties, oil companies and technology stocks.

For the day, the index stumbled 323.16 points or 1.27 percent to finish at 25,201.76 after trading between 25,140.17 and 25,653.92.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group added 0.16 percent, while Alibaba Health Info crashed 4.75 percent, ANTA Sports dropped 1.74 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 3.24 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plunged 3.86 percent, China Resources Land weakened 2.25 percent, CITIC and CNOOC both skidded 1.84 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plummeted 6.36 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tumbled 2.80 percent, Haier Smart Home retreated 2.77 percent, Hang Lung Properties sank 1.39 percent, Henderson Land slid 0.59 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas perked 0.14 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 1.37 percent, JD.com contracted 2.49 percent, Lenovo fell 0.63 percent, Li Auto lost 1.30 percent, Li Ning cratered 4.81 percent, Meituan surrendered 3.08 percent, New World Development stumbled 2.84 percent, Nongfu Spring surged 7.11 percent, Techtronic Industries slumped 1.85 percent, Xiaomi Corporation was down 0.56 percent and WuXi Biologics declined 2.64 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but moved largely to the upside throughout the day and ended with modest gains.

The Dow climbed 147.16 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 45,565.23, while the NASDAQ added 45.87 points or 0.21 percent to close at 21,590.14 and the S&P 500 rose 15.46 points or 0.24 percent to end at a record 6,481.40.

The modest strength on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the release of highly anticipated earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA). After the markets closed, NVIDIA reported earnings that increased from the same period last year and beat estimates.

Traders were also reluctant to make big moves ahead of Friday's Commerce Department report on personal income and spending for July, which includes the Federal Reserve's preferred readings on consumer price inflation.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 87.2 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point at its next monetary policy meeting in September.

Crude oil surged on Wednesday after U.S. crude and gasoline inventories fell more than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.83 or 1.33 percent at $64.08 per barrel.