Hong Kong Shares Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday snapped the four-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 780 points or 4.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 17,080-point plateau although it's expected to find renewed selling pressure on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with tech shares likely to weigh after disappointing earnings. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the properties were mixed.

For the day, the index advanced 93.80 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 17,085.33 after trading between 17,001.43 and 17,465.82.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group rallied 2.72 percent, while Alibaba Health Info sank 0.45 percent, ANTA Sports gained 0.89 percent, China Life Insurance perked 0.19 percent, China Mengniu Dairy soared 3.50 percent, China Resources Land jumped 2.42 percent, CITIC improved 1.21 percent, CNOOC plunged 2.83 percent, Country Garden fell 0.29 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical surged 3.82 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 1.15 percent, Hang Lung Properties increased 1.18 percent, Henderson Land dropped 0.73 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas rose 0.74 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.80 percent, JD.com spiked 2.93 percent, Lenovo skyrocketed 7.33 percent, Li Ning gathered 0.67 percent, Meituan climbed 1.95 percent, New World Development tumbled 1.11 percent, Techtronic Industries strengthened 2.10 percent, Xiaomi Corporation advanced 1.85 percent and WuXi Biologics slumped 1.08 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but quickly headed south and finished near session lows.

The Dow dropped 105.45 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 33,035.93, while the NASDAQ plunged 318,65 points or 2.43 percent to close at 12,821,22 and the S&P 500 sank 60.91 points or 1.43 percent to end at 4,186.77.

The particularly steep drop by the NASDAQ reflected a negative reaction to quarterly results from Alphabet (GOOGL), with the Google parent plunging 9.5 percent after the company reported Q3 earnings that beat estimates but had weaker than expected revenue from its cloud business.

A renewed increase by treasury yields also weighed on the markets, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note spiking after ending the previous session little changed.

The surge by yields came as traders looked ahead to key economic data in the coming days, including a preliminary reading on third quarter GDP on Thursday and personal income on Friday.

Oil futures settled higher on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak amid likely disruptions in supply due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $1.65 or 1.97 percent at $85.39 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide September figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In August, imports were down 0.3 percent on month and exports fell 3.7 percent for a trade deficit of HKD25.6 billion.