Rebound Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after snapping the two-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 400 points or 2.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 16,400-point plateau although it's expected to open in the green on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on continued optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the properties and financials.

For the day, the index stumbled 225.48 points or 1.36 percent to finish at 16,392.84 after trading between 16,354.81 and 16,612.00.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group slumped 2.13 percent, while Alibaba Health Info declined 2.16 percent, ANTA Sports skidded 1.86 percent, China Life Insurance stumbled 2.40 percent, China Mengniu Dairy crashed 9.92 percent, China Resources Land shed 1.01 percent, CITIC plummeted 6.42 percent, CNOOC weakened 2.00 percent, Country Garden plunged 4.53 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical dropped 1.26 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dipped 0.50 percent, Hang Lung Properties slid 0.87 percent, Henderson Land eased 0.22 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas lost 0.97 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slipped 0.75 percent, JD.com retreated 2.39 percent, Lenovo sank 1.19 percent, Li Ning fell 0.90 percent, Meituan tumbled 2.46 percent, New World Development surrendered 2.58 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 1.02 percent, Xiaomi Corporation tanked 3.53 percent and WuXi Biologics jumped 1.47 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and largely stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow surged 477.75 points or 1.22 percent to finish at 39,760.08, while the NASDAQ rallied 83.82 points or 0.51 percent to close at 16,399.52 and the S&P 500 gained 44.91 points or 0.86 percent to end at 5,248.49.

The strength on Wall Street came as traders again looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels after the previous day's mediocre performance.

A decrease by treasury yields also contributed to the strength in the markets amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement last week. While the Fed left interest rates unchanged, as expected, officials kept their forecast for three rate cuts this year.

Crude oil prices dropped on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended lower by $0.27 or 0.33 percent at $81.35 a barrel.

The markets are closed on Good Friday.