Hong Kong Bourse May Hand Back Friday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of 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 20,610-point plateau although it's expected to turn lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of this week's FOMC rate decision, while disappointing earnings news may weigh on tech sectors. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished slightly higher on Friday following gains from the financials and casinos, while the properties and technology and oil stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index rose 34.51 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 20,609.14 after trading between 20,513.80 and 20,788.46.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group was up 0.10 percent, while Alibaba Health Info declined 1.15 percent, ANTA Sports tumbled 1.41 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.51 percent, China Mengniu Dairy lost 0.27 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.28 percent, China Resources Land plunged 1.84 percent, CITIC tanked 1.44 percent, CNOOC advanced 0.61 percent, Country Garden surrendered 1.21 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rallied 0.72 percent, Galaxy Entertainment spiked 1.13 percent, Hang Lung Properties surged 2.47 percent, Henderson Land fell 0.18 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China gained 0.49 percent, JD.com dipped 0.16 percent, Lenovo added 0.55 percent, Li Ning retreated 0.67 percent, Jongfor jumped 0.95 percent, Meituan climbed 0.68 percent, New World Development rose 0.19 percent, Techtronic Industries plummeted 2.42 percent, Xiaomi Corporation and CK Infrastructure both sank 0.31 percent, WuXi Biologics soared 1.74 percent and Hong Kong & China Gas and Nongfu Spring were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages were unable to held early gains on Friday, quickly slipping into the red and finishing near session lows.

The Dow shed 137.61 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 31,899.29, while the NASDAQ tumbled 225.50 points or 1.87 percent to end at 11,834.11 and the S&P 500 slumped 37.32 points or 0.93 percent to close at 3,961.63.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.3 percent, the S&P jumped 2.5 percent and the Dow climbed 2.0 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street also came as traders looked ahead to this week's highly anticipated monetary policy decision by the Federal Reserve. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by at least 75 basis points as part of its ongoing efforts to combat elevated inflation.

A steep drop by shares of Snap Inc. (SNAP) weighed on the tech-heavy NASDAQ after the company reported disappointing second quarter results and declined to provide guidance. Social media giant Twitter (TWTR) also reported second quarter results that missed estimates.

Crude oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday as prices fell on concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended lower by $1.65 or 1.7 percent at $94.70 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see June data for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In May, imports were up 1.3 percent on year and exports fell an annual 1.4 percent for a trade deficit of HKD36.7 billion.