Lower Open Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Thursday snapped the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 1,130 points or 4.6 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 24,220-point plateau and it's likely to open under water again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on lingering concerns over tariffs and the health of the world economy. The European and U.S. markets both were slightly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index plummeted 551.19 points or 2.23 percent to finish at 24,219.95 after trading between 24,186.69 and 24,753.15.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group stumbled 3.97 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 6.44 percent, ANTA Sports tanked 4.85 percent, China Life Insurance plunged 5.89 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surrendered 4.51 percent, China Resources Land decline 2.99 percent, CITIC dropped 2.50 percent, CNOOC added 0.65 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rallied 2.57 percent, ENN Energy jumped 1.54 percent, Galaxy Entertainment shed 2.23 percent, Haier Smart Home sank 2.39 percent, Hang Lung Properties slid 1.73 percent, Henderson Land dipped 0.86 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas rallied 1.52 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slipped 1.06 percent, JD.com plunged 4.94 percent, Lenovo fell 2.18 percent, Li Auto lost 2.21 percent, Li Ning tanked 4.76 percent, Meituan surrendered 4.43 percent, New World Development retreated 3.56 percent, Nongfu Spring eased 0.66 percent, Techtronic Industries tumbled 3.61 percent, Xiaomi Corporation skidded 2.92 percent and WuXi Biologics slumped 2.98 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages were unable to hold early gains on Thursday, slipping slightly under water by the close.

The Dow shed 11.31 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 41,953.32m while the NASDAQ lost 59.16 points or 0.33 percent to close at 17,691.16 and the S&P 500 fell 12.40 points or 0.22 percent to end at 5,662.89.

The modestly lower close on Wall Street came amid lingering concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged, but forecasts suggest officials still expect to resume cutting rates later this year.

However, the Fed officials also lowered their projections for GDP growth in 2025 to 1.7 percent from 2.1 percent and raised their forecasts for consumer price growth this year to 2.7 percent from 2.5 percent.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday after the U.S. slapped fresh sanctions on Iran. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $1.10 or about 1.6 percent at $68.26 a barrel on the expiration day.