Soft Start Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday halted the two-day slide in which it had plummeted more than 740 points or 5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 15,450-point plateau although it may hand back some of those gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down, and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished with huge gains in every sector, particularly among the technology stocks.

For the day, the index skyrocketed 768.25 points or 5.23 percent to finish at 15,455.27 after trading between 14,859.92 and 15,632.85.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group spiked 7.57 percent, while Alibaba Health Info skyrocketed 9.64 percent, ANTA Sports jumped 6.38 percent, China Life Insurance climbed 3.39 percent, China Mengniu Dairy soared 8.55 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 2.90 percent, China Resources Land advanced 3.25 percent, CITIC added 1.00 percent, CNOOC strengthened 3.31 percent, Country Garden rallied 6.56 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical surged 9.05 percent, Galaxy Entertainment soared 8.79 percent, Hang Lung Properties gained 0.91 percent, Henderson Land gathered 083 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas increased 2.48 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.29 percent, JD.com spiked 8.41 percent, Lenovo perked 0.48 percent, Li Ning surged 9.48 percent, Longfor accelerated 8.20 percent, Meituan skyrocketed 11.86 percent, New World Development rose 0.62 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 5.58 percent, Xiaomi Corporation jumped 4.99 percent and WuXi Biologics accelerated 6.90 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages were unable to hold early gains on Tuesday, quickly heading south and ending in the red.

The Dow shed 79.75 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 32,653.20, while the NASDAQ dropped 97.30 points or 0.89 percent to end at 10,890.85 and the S&P 500 fell 15.88 points or 0.41 percent to close at 3,856.10.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came as traders wished to consolidate their positions ahead of the Fed announcement. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, but traders have expressed optimism the central bank will signal plans to slow the pace of rate hikes at upcoming meetings.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted a jump in U.S. job openings in September, while the Institute for Supply Management showed a slight increase in U.S. manufacturing activity in October. Also, the Commerce Department said construction spending in the U.S. unexpectedly increased in October.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday on a weak dollar, a reduction in OPEC crude output, an upward revision in oil demand forecast by OPEC, and record U.S. oil export data. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December jumped $1.84 or 2.1 percent at $88.37 a barrel.