Continued Consolidation Called For Hang Seng

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market turned lower again on Thursday, one day after halting the seven-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 1,850 points or 7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 25,900-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over bad loans in the auto industry. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished barely lower on Thursday as losses from the properties and technology stocks were mitigated by support from the financial shares.

For the day, the index slipped 22.09 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 25,888.51 after trading between 25,687.32 and 26,062.80.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group lost 0.25 percent, while Alibaba Health Info fell 0.16 percent, ANTA Sports sank 0.58 percent, China Life Insurance surged 4.82 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skidded 0.82 percent, China Resources Land jumped 1.94 percent, CITIC was down 0.09 percent, CNOOC increased 0.85 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rallied 1.87 percent, Galaxy Entertainment eased 0.05 percent, Haier Smart Home tumbled 1.22 percent, Hang Lung Properties tanked 2.34 percent, Henderson Land shed 0.37 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas improved 1.12 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China soared 2.08 percent, JD.com dropped 0.70 percent, Lenovo slumped 0.95 percent, Li Auto retreated 1.51 percent, Li Ning climbed 1.19 percent, Meituan declined 1.15 percent, New World Development stumbled 1.55 percent, Nongfu Spring advanced 1.01 percent, Techtronic Industries dipped 0.11 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plunged 3.60 percent, WuXi Biologics spiked 2.00 percent and CLP Holdings was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but dropped into the red midday and stayed there for the balance of the session.

The Dow stumbled 301.07 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 45,952.24, while the NASDAQ clumped 107.54 points or 0.47 percent to close at 22.562.54 and the S&P 500 sank 41.99 points or 0.63 percent to end at 6,629.07.

The weakness that materialized on Wall Street was attributed to the emergence of concerns about bad loans following the recent bankruptcies of two auto industry-related companies First Brands and Tricolor Holdings.

Earlier in the day, the tech sector rose on upbeat earnings news from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), which produces chips for Nvidia (NVDA). TSM reported a bigger than expected surge in Q3 profits amid strong AI chip demand and raised its forecast for revenue growth.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia noted a substantial pullback by its reading on regional manufacturing activity in the month of October.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday after the Energy Information said that crude oil inventories in the U.S. increased much more than expected, sparking demand concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude Oil for November delivery was down $0.97 or 1.66 percent at $57.30 per barrel.