Hong Kong Bourse May Spin Its Wheels On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, accelerating almost 350 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,500-point plateau although it's likely to run out of steam on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with a lack of direction over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday with gains across the board, especially among the financials, properties and technology companies.

For the day, the index soared 255.59 points or 1.57 percent to finish at 16,503.10 after trading between 16,138.81 and 16,756.01.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group picked up 1.04 percent, while Alibaba Health Info collected 2.03 percent, ANTA Sports gathered 1.98 percent, China Life Insurance accelerated 4.70 percent, China Mengniu Dairy climbed 3.29 percent, China Resources Land surged 4.92 percent, CITIC increased 2.78 percent, CNOOC slumped 1.28 percent, Country Garden gained 2.44 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical perked 1.46 percent, Galaxy Entertainment eased 0.11 percent, Hang Lung Properties spiked 4.84 percent, Henderson Land improved 2.82 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas was up 1.34 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and ENN Energy both rose 2.26 percent, JD.com added 2.73 percent, Lenovo jumped 3.88 percent, Li Ning strengthened 3.54 percent, Meituan soared 4.90 percent, New World Development jumped 4.59 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 4.69 percent, Xiaomi Corporation advanced 2.93 percent and WuXi Biologics skyrocketed 5.11 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and spent the vast majority of the session in the red, with only a late spurt lifting the Dow and S&P barely into the green.

The Dow added 48.44 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 38,612.24, while the NASDAQ lost 49.91 points or 0.32 percent to close at 15,580.87 and the S&P 500 rose 6.29 points or 0.13 percent to end at 4,981.80.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates weighed on the markets for much of the session, with the major averages falling to their worst levels after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed most officials remain wary of cutting interest rates "too quickly."

However, the Fed said a couple of participants pointed to downside risks to the economy associated with maintaining an overly restrictive stance for too long. The late-day recovery may have reflected expectations the Fed will still eventually cut interest rates.

Oil prices rebounded from early losses and settled higher on Wednesday as concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East outweighed weak outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $0.87 or 1.1 percent at $77.91 a barrel.