Lower Open Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Monday snapped the five-day losing streak in which it plummeted almost 1,450 points or 7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 20,850-point plateau although it's got a weak lead for Tuesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with profit taking expected amid concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down, and the Asian markets are tipped to trend generally lower as well.

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

For the day, the index surged 548.46 points or 2.70 percent to finish at 20,846.18 after trading between 20,294.14 and 20,866.33.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies improved 1.65 percent, while Alibaba Group gained 1.66 percent, Alibaba Health Info strengthened 3.58 percent, ANTA Sports jumped 2.49 percent, China Life Insurance collected 2.23 percent, China Mengniu Dairy gathered 1.45 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rallied 4.68 percent, China Resources Land and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both soared 2.99 percent, CITIC jumped 3.84 percent, CNOOC spiked 5.69 percent, Country Garden skyrocketed 6.36 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical spiked 2.93 percent, Galaxy Entertainment perked 1.33 percent, Hang Lung Properties advanced 2.04 percent, Henderson Land increased 1.63 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas added 1.95 percent, JD.com surged 3.31 percent, Lenovo rose 1.27 percent, Li Ning rallied 2.56 percent, Meituan soared 5.86 percent, New World Development climbed 2.12 percent, Techtronic Industries surged 6.24 percent, Xiaomi Corporation accelerated 5.62 percent and WuXi Biologics gained 0.46 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages couldn't hold on to early gains, sinking as the day progressed to close firmly in the red.

The Dow tumbled 215.65 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 31,072.61, while the NASDAQ sank 92.37 points or 0.81 percent to end at 11,360.05 and the S&P 500 lost 32.31 points or 0.84 percent to close at 3,830.85.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders continued to pick up stocks at reduced levels, while positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to upbeat earnings news from Goldman Sachs (GS) and others.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders continued to worry about the economic outlook ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

In U.S. economic news, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing a substantial deterioration in U.S. homebuilder confidence in the month of July.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Monday with traders assessing crude supply levels amid concerns over gas supply from Russia. A weak dollar also contributed significantly to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for August ended higher by $5.01 or 5.1 percent at $102.60 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide June figures for unemployment later today; in May, the jobless rate was 5.1 percent.