Bargain Hunting Expected To Lift Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in five straight sessions, tumbling more than 750 points or 4.2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 18,100-point plateau although it's overdue for support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on an improved outlook for interest rates and support from technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower again on Monday following losses from the property sector and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index sank 105.62 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 18,096.45 after trading between 17,842.37 and 18,164.61.

Among the actives, New World Development plummeted 6.06 percent, while Alibaba Health Information surged 6.05 percent, Henderson Land plunged 4.02 percent, Techtronic Industries soared 3.03 percent, Alibaba tanked 3.03 percent, Country Garden surrendered 2.32 percent, JD.com tumbled 2.26 percent, WuXi Biologics spiked 2.03 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rallied 1.76 percent, Xiaomi retreated 1.68 percent, China Mengniu Dairy jumped 1.50 percent, Hang Lung Properties declined 1.33 percent, Lenovo Group stumbled 1.20 percent, ANTA Sports strengthened 1.18 percent, Li Ning climbed 1.07 percent, CNOOC slumped 1.04 percent, China Life advanced 0.82 percent, CITIC improved 0.79 percent, Haier Smart Home skidded 0.61 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dropped 0.60 percent, Meituan added 0.56 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Hong Kong & China Gas both sank 0.53 percent and China Resources Land and CK Infrastructure were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Monday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow advanced 87.13 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 34,663.72, while the NASDAQ spiked 156.37 points or 1.14 percent to close at 13,917.89 and the S&P 500 gained 29.97 points or 0.67 percent to end at 4,487.46.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ received a boost from a surge by shares of Tesla (TSLA), with the electric car maker spiking by 10.1 percent after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the company's stock to Overweight from Equal-Weight.

The overall strength on Wall Street partly reflected easing concerns about the outlook for interest rates after reports suggested a shift in Federal Reserve officials' stance on rates.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 93.0 chance the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged next week. The outlook for November is a little more uncertain, however, with the FedWatch Tool indicating a 54.5 percent chance rates will remain unchanged and a 42.6 percent chance of another quarter point rate hike.

Crude oil prices fell on Monday, retreating from last week's 10-month highs on concerns about the outlook for energy demand from China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended lower by $0.22 or 0.3 percent at $87.29 a barrel.