Hong Kong Stocks May Halt Their Slide On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, slumping more than 430 points or 3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 14,960-point plateau although it may find traction on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over upcoming earnings, especially among the technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board, especially among the technology stocks, properties and financials.

For the day, the index plummeted 347.51 points or 2.27 percent to finish at 14,961.18 after trading between 14,794.16 and 15,362.91.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group fell 0.15 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tanked 5.36 percent, ANTA Sports slumped 2.43 percent, China Life Insurance declined 2.46 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plunged 5.45 percent, China Resources Land plummeted 11.06 percent, CITIC surrendered 2.59 percent, CNOOC sank 0.76 percent, Country Garden tanked 5.72 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical retreated 4.06 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tumbled 4.25 percent, Hang Lung Properties plunged 5.80 percent, Henderson Land declined 3.33 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dropped 1.61 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 1.39 percent, JD.com skidded 1.96 percent, Lenovo added 0.61 percent, Li Ning plummeted 6.55 percent, Meituan retreated 4.73 percent, New World Development surrendered 4.21 percent, Techtronic Industries slumped 2.66 percent, Xiaomi Corporation dropped 1.52 percent and WuXi Biologics tumbled 4.76 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened solidly higher, with the Dow and S&P hitting fresh record intraday highs; they faded as the day progressed but still ended well in the green.

The Dow climbed 138.01 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 38,001.81, while the NASDAQ gained 49.32 points or 0.32 percent to close at 15,360.29 and the S&P 500 rose 10.62 points or 0.22 percent to end at 4,850.43.

The early strength on Wall Street came on continued optimism about the outlook for earnings from major tech firms, with Intel (INTC), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Netflix (NFLX) among the companies due to release their quarterly results this week.

In economic news, the Conference Board noted a modest decrease in its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in December, continuing to signal underlying weakness in the U.S. economy.

Oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East, and extreme cold weather in North America. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled at $75.19 a barrel, gaining $1.78 or about 2.4 percent.