Hong Kong Stock Market May Be Rangebound On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in back-to-back trading days, advancing almost 140 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 21,725-point plateau and it's expected to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with easing recession concerns offset by the worsening outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks, while the technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index improved 82.20 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 21,725.78 after trading between 21,614.65 and 21,961.75.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies spiked 2.07 percent, while Alibaba Group surged 3.68 percent, Alibaba Health Info tumbled 1.78 percent, ANTA Sports strengthened 1.28 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.64 percent, China Mengniu Dairy declined 1.53 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) dipped 0.29 percent, China Resources Land soared 2.64 percent, CITIC advanced 0.85 percent, CNOOC gained 0.51 percent, Country Garden accelerated 2.03 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical skyrocketed 5.88 percent, Galaxy Entertainment climbed 1.06 percent, Hang Lung Properties jumped 1.53 percent, Henderson Land added 0.52 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas improved 0.71 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was up 0.23 percent, JD.com slumped 0.57 percent, Li Ning plunged 2.31 percent, Meituan skidded 1.08 percent, New World Development increased 0.37 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 1.14 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rose 0.30 percent, WuXi Biologics plummeted 3.26 percent and Lenovo, Nongfu Spring and CK Infrastructure were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 46.45 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 31,338.15m while the NASDAQ rose 14.01 points or 0.12 percent to end at 11,635.31 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.24 points or 0.08 percent to close at 3,899.38. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.6 percent, the S&P jumped 1.9 percent and the Dow rose 0.8 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing stronger than expected U.S. job growth in June.

The data eased worries about the economy, but it also added to concerns about aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, gaining for a second straight day after the stronger than expected jobs report. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August jumped $2.06 or 2 percent at $104.79 a barrel, but WTI crude futures shed more than 3 percent in the week.