Hong Kong Shares Tipped To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had fallen more than 480 points or 1.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 25,340-point plateau and it's expected to open higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the technology and financial shares, while the property sector came in mixed.

For the day, the index rallied 234.54 points or 0.93 percent to finish at 25,339.14 after trading between 25,140.08 and 25,349.08.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group rallied 1.99 percent, while ANTA Sports spiked 3.12 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.65 percent, China Mengniu Dairy retreated 0.91 percent, China Resources Land sank 0.57 percent, CITIC rose 0.35 percent, CNOOC dipped 0.16 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical was up 0.19 percent, Galaxy Entertainment shed 0.30 percent, Haier Smart Home fell 0.24 percent, Hang Lung Properties climbed 0.87 percent, Henderson Land dropped 0.59 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gathered 0.29 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China increased 0.29 percent, JD.com perked 0.25 percent, Lenovo stumbled 2.19 percent, Li Auto jumped 1.37 percent, Li Ning surged 8.78 percent, Meituan strengthened 1.11 percent, New World Development added 0.47 percent, Nongfu Spring gained 0.43 percent, Techtronic Industries slumped 0.75 percent, Xiaomi Corporation accelerated 2.34 percent, WuXi Biologics soared 5.11 percent and Alibaba Health Info and CLP Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and continued to trend upward as the day continued, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 846.24 points or 1.89 percent to finish at 45,631.74, while the NASDAQ rallied 396.23 points or 1.88 percent to end at 21,496.54 and the S&P 500 jumped 96.74 points or 1.52 percent to close at 6,466.91.

For the week, the Dow spiked 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ slipped 0.6 percent and the S&P rose 0.3 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came in reaction to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech before the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

While Powell touched only briefly on the outlook for monetary policy, his remarks have increased investor confidence that the Fed will lower interest rates next month.

Following Powell's remarks, CME Group's FedWatch Tool jumped to indicate an 83.1 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next month, up from 75.0 percent a day earlier.

Crude oil prices rose modestly on Friday as expectations of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal waned with no progress. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.13 pr 0.20 percent at $63.65 per barrel.