Hong Kong Shares Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, stumbling more than 370 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,720-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday with damage in all sectors, especially among the property and technology stocks.

For the day, the index plunged 240.77 points or 1.42 percent to finish at 16,720.89 after trading between 16,550.42 and 16,821.13.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tumbled 2.11 percent, while Alibaba Health Info skidded 1.47 percent, ANTA Sports lost 1.07 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 3.16 percent, China Mengniu Dairy was down 0.41 percent, China Resources Land slipped 0.79 percent, CITIC dropped 1.46 percent, CNOOC sank 1.35 percent, Country Garden slumped1.54 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rallied 1.98 percent, ENN Energy surged 2.53 percent, Galaxy Entertainment declined 1.59 percent, Hang Lung Properties surrendered 3.15 percent, Henderson Land shed 1.28 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dipped 0.67 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 1.00 percent, JD.com stumbled 1.79 percent, Lenovo slid 0.84 percent, Li Ning plummeted 3.72 percent, Meituan plunged 3.77 percent, New World Development retreated1.78 percent, Techtronic Industries soared 2.19 percent, Xiaomi Corporation weakened 1.49 percent, WuXi Biologics crashed 10.20 percent and CLP Holdings was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 190.89 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,714.77, while the NASDAQ dropped 155.36 points or 0.96 percent to close at 15,973.17 and the S&P 500 sank 33.39 points or 0.65 percent to end at 5,117.09. For the week, the NASDAQ fell 0.7 percent, the S&P eased 0.1 percent and the Dow was nearly flat.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's monetary policy meeting later this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. Recent hotter-than-expected inflation readings have reduced optimism that the Fed's first rate cut may come in June.

In economic news, the Labor Department said U.S. import prices increased in line with estimates in February, while export prices exceeded expectations. The Fed also noted a slight increase in U.S. industrial production in February.

Oil prices dropped on Friday, retreating from multi-month highs, due largely to profit taking after recent strong gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down by $0.22 at $81.04 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see unemployment data for February later today; in January, the jobless rate was 2.9 percent.