Hong Kong Stock Market Due For Profit Taking

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, climbing more than 630 points or 3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 20,040-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with strength from crude oil prices offset by likely profit taking. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Friday with gains across the board, especially among the property and technology stocks.

For the day, the index climbed 211.47 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 20,040.37 after trading between 19,876.42 and 20,155.92.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group surged 2.92 percent, while Alibaba Health Info perked 0.19 percent, ANTA Sports rallied 1.50 percent, China Life Insurance strengthened 1.32 percent, China Mengniu Dairy jumped 1.43 percent, China Resources Land was up 0.15 percent, CITIC increased 1.41 percent, CNOOC improved 0.72 percent, Country Garden surged 4.17 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical soared 3.41 percent, Galaxy Entertainment rallied 2.32 percent, Hang Lung Properties climbed 0.76 percent, Henderson Land gathered 0.21 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas spiked 2.77 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.96 percent, JD.com jumped 1.42 percent, Lenovo soared 2.65 percent, Li Ning added 0.52 percent, Meituan and Nongfu Spring both advanced 0.58 percent, New World Development spiked 2.22 percent, Techtronic Industries rose 0.24 percent, Xiaomi Corporation was up 0.18 percent and WuXi Biologics gained 0.32 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slumped late to finish in the red.

The Dow shed 108.98 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 34,299.12, while the NASDAQ dropped 93.23 points or 0.68 percent to close at 13,689.57 and the S&P 500 sank 16.25 points or 0.37 percent to end at 4,409.59.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.3 percent, the S&P 500 jumped2.6 percent and the Dow advanced 1.3 percent.

The late-day weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking as traders looked to cash in after the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit their best closing levels in over a year, while the Dow set a new six-month closing high.

In economic news, inflation expectations edged down to 3.0 percent in June from 3.1 percent in May, again staying within the narrow 2.9-3.1 percent range. The decrease in inflation expectations may add to recent investor optimism that the Federal Reserve won't follow through on its plan to continue raising interest rates.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday amid hopes about higher refinery demand and that further stimulus in China will help boost growth in the world's second largest economy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $1.16 or 1.6 percent at $71.78 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 2.3 percent in the week.