Profit Taking Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, accelerating almost 600 points or 3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,600-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains across the board, especially from the financials, properties and technology stocks.

For the day, the index soared 332.67 points or 1.73 percent to finish at 19.591.43 after trading between 19,428.36 and 19,775.69.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group soared 2.92 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rose 0.17 percent, ANTA Sports spiked 2.30 percent, China Life Insurance climbed 1.23 percent, China Mengniu Dairy and CNOOC both advanced 1.06 percent, China Resources Land improved 0.99 percent, CITIC rallied 1.46 percent, Country Garden surged 2.93 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical spiked 2.45 percent, Galaxy Entertainment strengthened 1.67 percent, Hang Lung Properties jumped 1.77 percent, Henderson Land gathered 0.38 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gained 0.43 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.20 percent, JD.com accelerated 1.87 percent, Lenovo added 0.55 percent, Li Ning soared 2.47 percent, Meituan perked 0.15 percent, New World Development surged 2.38 percent, Techtronic Industries increased 0.94 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rallied 1.79 percent and WuXi Biologics jumped 1.53 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened flat on Wednesday and stayed that way until the FOMC announcement, which caused them to plummet.

The Dow plunged 530.49 points or 1.63 percent to finish at 32.030.11, while the NASDAQ tumbled 190.15 points or 1.60 percent to close at 11,669.96 and the S&P 500 sank 65.90 points or 1.65 percent to end at 3,936.97.

The late-day sell-off on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its decision to continue raising interest rates despite recent turmoil in the banking industry.

While the interest rate hike was widely expected, some traders may have been holding out hope the Fed would leave rates unchanged.

The central bank's latest projections suggest the Fed plans to raise rates just one more time this year to a range of 5.0 to 5.25 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after data showed that crude inventories rose by 1.117 million barrels last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled at $70.90 a barrel, gaining $1.23 or 1.8 percent.

Closer to home, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and announce its decision on interest rates; the HKMA is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 5.00 percent.

Hong Kong also will see February figures for consumer prices, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 2.30 percent on year, slowing from 2.40 percent a month earlier.