Soft Start Anticipated For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 850 points or 5.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 17,080-point plateau and it may see additional weakness on Thursday.

The global forecast is mixed and flat amid a lack of catalysts, with expected weakness from the technology stocks likely offset by gains from the oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished barely lower on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index dipped 11.39 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 17,082.11 after trading between 17,050.87 and 17,214.67.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group skidded 1.14 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tanked 2.53 percent, ANTA Sports fell 0.25 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 1.59 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tumbled 2.03 percent, China Resources Land dropped 0.61 percent, CITIC dipped 0.24 percent, CNOOC rallied 1.15 percent, Country Garden and Hang Lung Properties both declined 1.67 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical spiked 1.42 percent, Galaxy Entertainment climbed 1.11 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas stumbled 1.31 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.70 percent, Lenovo soared 2.50 percent, Li Ning plunged 3.39 percent, Meituan advanced 1.02 percent, New World Development plummeted 3.83 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.97 percent, WuXi Biologics sank 0.54 percent and Henderson Land, JD.com and Xiaomi Corporation were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday and finished the same way, little changed.

The Dow added 37.83 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 39,043.32, while the NASDAQ sank 87.87 points or 0.54 percent to close at 16,177.77 and the S&P 500 fell 9.96 points or 0.19 percent to end at 5.165.31.

The pullback by the Nasdaq partly reflected weakness in the tech sector, with AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) slumping by 1.1 percent.

Overall trading activity remained subdued ahead of several key reports in the coming days, including producer prices, jobless claims, industrial production and retail sales.

Oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week, while supply disruptions in Russia also contributed to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April rose $2.16 or 2.8 percent at $79.72 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see Q4 numbers for industrial production and producer prices later today. In the previous three months, production was up 4.4 percent on year and producer prices rose an annual 3.0 percent.