Hong Kong Bourse May Hand Back Friday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Friday ended the three-day slide in which it had tumbled almost 830 points or 3.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 25,075-point plateau although it may see renewed consolidation on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday as the financials, properties and technology stocks ended mostly in the green.

For the day, the index gained 78.82 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 25,077.62 after trading between 25,066.85 and 25,277.51.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dipped 0.09 percent, while Alibaba Health Info jumped 1.49 percent, China Life Insurance and ANTA Sports both rose 0.42 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plummeted 4.04 percent, China Resources Land collected 0.26 percent, CITIC stumbled 2.11 percent, CNOOC advanced 0.57 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical surged 6.67 percent, Galaxy Entertainment perked 0.34 percent, Haier Smart Home soared 4.63 percent, Hang Lung Properties gathered 0.38 percent, Henderson Land eased 0.07 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas sank 0.43 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.35 percent, JD.com accelerated 2.26 percent, Lenovo tumbled 2.03 percent, Li Auto spiked 4.03 percent, Li Ning gained 0.43 percent, Meituan strengthened 0.98 percent, New World Development rallied 1.85 percent, Nongfu Spring climbed 0.85 percent, Techtronic Industries added 0.45 percent, Xiaomi Corporation dropped 0.47 percent and WuXi Biologics skyrocketed 6.96 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water and stayed that way throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 92.02 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 45,544.88, while the NASDAQ tumbled 249.65 points or 1.15 percent to end at 21,455.55 and the S&P 500 sank 41.60 points or 0.64 percent to close at 6,420.26. For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent and the Dow and NASDAQ both dipped 0.2 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking, as some traders looked to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.

Meanwhile, traders seemingly shrugged off a typically closely watched Commerce Department report showing U.S. consumer prices increased in line with estimates in July.

While the data increased confidence the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, a September rate cut may already have been priced into the markets. CME Group's FedWatch is currently indicating an 87.1 percent chance that the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point at its next monetary policy meeting.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on concerns on overproduction concerns as OPEC recently agreed to increase crude production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.60 or 0.93 percent at $64.00 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release July numbers for retail sales later today; in June, sales were up 0.7 percent on year.