Hong Kong Shares Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 350 points or 1.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,450-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uncertain amidst debt ceiling negotiations in the United States. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks, technology companies and oil stocks.

For the day, the index tumbled 276.63 points or 1.40 percent to finish at 19,450.57 after trading between 19,352.81 and 19,610.72.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group plummeted 6.04 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tumbled 2.30 percent, ANTA Sports weakened 1.20 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.87 percent, China Mengniu Dairy dipped 0.32 percent, China Resources Land stumbled 2.13 percent, CITIC lost 0.59 percent, CNOOC was down 0.31 percent, Country Garden declined 1.97 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical slid 0.53 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 0.19 percent, Hang Lung Properties dropped 0.96 percent, Henderson Land eased 0.18 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas jumped 1.92 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 0.67 percent, JD.com plunged 4.72 percent, Lenovo slumped 1.26 percent, Li Ning slipped 0.41 percent, Meituan tanked 3.67 percent, New World Development shed 0.62 percent, Techtronic Industries fell 0.57 percent, Xiaomi Corporation skidded 1.09 percent and WuXi Biologics surrendered 3.33 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is slightly soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slipped into the shortly thereafter and finished the same way.

The Dow dropped 109.27 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 33,426.63, while the NASDAQ sank 30.90 points or 0.24 percent to close at 12,657.90 and the S&P 500 fell 6.07 points or 0.14 percent to end at 4,191.98. For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.0 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7 percent and the Dow rose 0.4 percent.

The downturn on Wall Street came as Republican negotiators walked out of a meeting over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, offsetting recent optimism about an impending deal.

Selling pressure remained relatively subdued, however, as traders still expect lawmakers to eventually reach a debt ceiling deal.

Comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reinforcing expectations the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged next month also helped limit the downside.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Friday, weighed down by the ambiguity regarding the U.S. debt ceiling talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June slipped $0.31 or 0.4 percent to $71.55 a barrel; WTI crude futures gained 2.2 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide April numbers for consumer prices later today, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.8 percent on year, up from 1.7 percent in March.