Hong Kong Shares Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had added more than 80 points or 0.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,350-point plateau although it's expected to turn lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with energy and technology stocks likely to be under pressure. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the property stocks, financial shares and technology companies.

For the day, the index advanced 123.59 points or 0.76 percent to finish at 16,353.39 after trading between 16,275.39 and 16,489.73.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group added 0.78 percent, while Alibaba Health Info fell 0.31 percent, ANTA Sports soared 2.82 percent, China Life Insurance improved 1.50 percent, China Resources Land and Hong Kong & China Gas both rose 0.68 percent, CITIC climbed 1.79 percent, CNOOC skyrocketed 4.42 percent, Country Garden strengthened 1.83 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical jumped 1.88 percent, Galaxy Entertainment retreated 1.76 percent, Haier Smart Home perked 0.41 percent, Hang Lung Properties gained 0.73 percent, Henderson Land increased 1.14 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.50 percent, JD.com tumbled 2.06 percent, Lenovo gathered 0.52 percent, Li Ning spiked 2.67 percent, Meituan sank 0.82 percent, New World Development surged 3.60 percent, Techtronic Industries advanced 0.80 percent, Xiaomi Corporation accelerated 2.19 percent, WuXi Biologics rallied 2.11 percent and China Mengniu Dairy was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday but fell into the red shortly thereafter, closing under water.

The Dow dropped 68.71 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 38.722.69, while the NASDAQ tumbled 188.29 points or 1.16 percent to end at 16,085.11 and the S&P 500 sank 33.67 points or 0.65 percent to close at 5,123.69. For the week, the NASDAQ slumped 1.2 percent, the Dow lost 0.9 percent and the S&P eased 0.3 percent.

The early strength on Wall Street came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates. While job growth in February came in much stronger than expected, the report also showed notable downward revisions to job growth in the two previous months.

The downward revisions and the unexpected increase in the unemployment rate combined with a slowdown in the annual rate of wage growth has added to optimism the Federal Reserve will begin lowering interest rates in June.

Buying interest remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to continue buying stocks ahead of the release of key inflation data this week that could have a more profound impact on the outlook for rates.

Oil prices fell on Friday amid uncertainty about the outlook for demand, particularly from China after data showed a drop in the country's oil imports in the first two months of the year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April shed $0.92 or 1.2 percent at $78.01 a barrel. WTI crude futures sank 2.5 percent in the week.