Soft Start Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 210 points or 1.1 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,370-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is decidedly soft on concerns about the economy and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets are tipped to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financials, properties, oil companies and technology stocks.

For the day, the index tumbled 304.86 points or 1.55 percent to finish at 19,368.59 after trading between 19,233.86 and 19,675.68.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group plunged 4.02 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surrendered 2.95 percent, ANTA Sports slid 0.41 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.50 percent, China Mengniu Dairy sank 0.85 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) slipped 0.27 percent, China Resources Land jumped 0.73 percent, CITIC was down 0.13 percent, CNOOC shed 0.70 percent, Country Garden weakened 1.48 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 1.83 percent, Galaxy Entertainment skidded 1.24 percent, Hang Lung Properties added 0.68 percent, Henderson Land gained 0.38 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas rose 0.27 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eased 0.26 percent, JD.com declined 2.81 percent, Lenovo perked 0.16 percent, Li Ning slumped 1.51 percent, Longfor lost 0.59 percent, Meituan tanked 3.28 percent, New World Development dropped 1.13 percent, Techtronic Industries tumbled 3.27 percent, Xiaomi Corporation retreated 2.31 percent and WuXi Biologics plummeted 4.23 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Thursday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow plummeted 773.26 points or 2.28 percent to finish at 33,193.09, while the NASDAQ plunged 356.54 points or 3.19 percent to close at 10.814.35 and the S&P 500 tumbled 99.45 points or 2.49 percent to end at 3,895.87.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday was more hawkish than expected.

A batch of disappointing U.S. economic data also added to concerns the Fed's aggressive interest rate hikes will push the economy into a recession.

Retail sales dropped more than expected last month, as did industrial production. Also, the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserves showed contractions in regional manufacturing activity in the month of December.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday as concerns about easing supply following a partial restart of the Keystone Pipeline. The dollar's rise on hawkish comments by the Federal Reserve weighed as well on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.17 or 1.5 percent at $76.11 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see November numbers for unemployment later today; in October, the jobless rate was 3.8 percent.