Hong Kong Bourse May Extend Friday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the six-day losing streak in which it had plummeted almost 1,100 points or 5.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 20,570-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, supported by oil and technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the technology stocks and properties.

For the day, the index jumped 138.04 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 20,567.54 after trading between 20,498.16 and 20,727.25.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group rose 0.46 percent, while Alibaba Health Info improved 1.17 percent, ANTA Sports jumped 2.01 percent, China Life Insurance declined 1.55 percent, China Mengniu Dairy dropped 0.84 percent, China Resources Land surged 3.17 percent, CITIC rallied 2.12 percent, CNOOC advanced 0.91 percent, Country Garden spiked 2.82 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical perked 0.34 percent, Galaxy Entertainment was up 0.28 percent, Hang Lung Properties added 0.78 percent, Henderson Land gained 0.72 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas retreated 1.76 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.99 percent, JD.com soared 3.13 percent, Lenovo climbed 1.39 percent, Li Ning tumbled 1.83 percent, Meituan gathered 0.71 percent, New World Development strengthened 1.83 percent, Techtronic Industries lost 0.30 percent, Xiaomi Corporation increased 0.80 percent and WuXi Biologics and CLP Holdings both rose 0.26 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and accelerated as the day progressed, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 387.37 points or 1.17 percent to finish at 33,390.97, while the NASDAQ rallied 226.01 points or 1.97 percent to end at 11,689.01 and the S&P 500 jumped 64.29 points or 1.61 percent to close at 4,045.64. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 2.6 percent, the S&P gained 1.9 percent and the Dow climbed 1.8 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came as traders continued to pick up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness. A pullback by treasury yields also generated some buying interest, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note giving ground after jumping to a three-month closing high above 4.0 percent.

Traders also reacted positively to a report from the Institute for Supply Management showing a very slight slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. service sector activity in February.

Crude oil prices reversed an early sell-off after the United Arab Emirates denied a report that was thinking of leaving OPEC. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery surged $1.52 or 1.9 percent to $79.68 a barrel. For the week, crude oil spiked 4.4 percent.