Higher Open Called For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, tumbling more than 840 points or 4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 21,840-point plateau and it's got a solid lead for Wednesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to higher ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and accompanying statement later today. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the property and oil stocks, while the technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index skidded 227.40 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 21,842.33 after trading between 21,631.55 and 22,284.32.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dropped 1.28 percent, while Alibaba Health Info shed 1.13 percent, ANTA Sports slid 0.42 percent, China Life Insurance skidded 1.64 percent, China Mengniu Dairy stumbled 1.82 percent, China Resources Land tanked 4.33 percent, CITIC lost 1.08 percent, CNOOC eased 0.18 percent, Country Garden sank 1.17 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical tumbled 3.66 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 0.65 percent, Hang Lung Properties plummeted 5.26 percent, Henderson Land surrendered 3.18 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas retreated 2.60 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, JD.com slumped 2.44 percent, Lenovo advanced 0.80 percent, Li Ning and Nongfu Spring both fell 0.45 percent, Meituan gained 0.63 percent, New World Development plunged 4.49 percent, Techtronic Industries climbed 1.72 percent, Xiaomi Corporation jumped 1.73 percent and WuXi Biologics declined 2.61 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened roughly flat on Tuesday but moved steadily higher as the day progressed.

The Dow climbed 368.95 points or 1.09 percent to finish at 34,086.04, while the NASDAQ jumped 190.74 points or 1.67 percent to close at 11,584.55 and the S&P 500 advanced 58.83 points or 1.46 percent to end at 4,076.60.

Recent data has reinforced the view that the central bank will likely slow the pace of its monetary policy tightening later today and raise interest rate by only 25 basis points.

The central bank's accompanying statement will be in focus for clues about further interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Labor Department said employment cost index wages in the U.S. increased at a slower pace in Q4, while the Institute for Supply Management said the Chicago PMI contracted for the fifth straight month.

Crude oil futures moved higher on Tuesday on expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates at a slower pace, so the greenback might strengthen less than expected. West Texas International Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.97 or 1.3 percent at $78.87 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release preliminary Q4 numbers for gross domestic product later today; in the previous three months GDP was down 2.6 percent on quarter and 4.5 percent on year.