Additional Support Predicted For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, improving almost 500 points or 2 percent in that span. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 24,150-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets moved higher and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the property stocks and technology companies, although the automobile producers weighed.

For the day, the index advanced 185.59 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 24,145.57 after trading between 24,077.15 and 24,352.47.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group shed 0.22 percent, while Alibaba Health Info stumbled 1.67 percent, ANTA Sports dropped 0.75 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.36 percent, China Mengniu Dairy rose 0.30 percent, China Resources Land rallied 1.51 percent, CITIC sank 0.83 percent, CNOOC, Nongfu Spring and Henderson Land all added 0.66 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical lost 0.21 percent, ENN Energy skyrocketed 8.03 percent, Galaxy Entertainment strengthened 1.24 percent, Haier Smart Home gained 0.38 percent, Hang Lung Properties improved 0.74 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas jumped 1.89 percent, JD.com accelerated 2.05 percent, Lenovo advanced 0.86 percent, Li Auto plummeted 7.16 percent, Li Ning soared 3.49 percent, Meituan climbed 0.98 percent, New World Development spiked 3.01 percent, Techtronic Industries tanked 2.30 percent, Xiaomi Corporation surged 3.62 percent, WuXi Biologics fell 0.19 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and CKI Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Monday, dipped midday but still finished solidly in the green.

The Dow jumped 353.44 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 41,841.63, while the NASDAQ climbed 54.58 points or 0.31 percent to close at 17,808.66 and the S&P 500 improved 36.18 points or 0.64 percent to end at 5,675.12.

The strength on Wall Street came as traders continued to pick up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness, which saw the S&P 500 plunge into correction territory last Thursday.

Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to the Commerce Department's report on U.S. retail sales in the month of February, which wasn't as bad as feared.

However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. While the Fed is almost universally expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement and officials' latest projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

Oil futures rose on Monday on hopes of improved demand from China after plans to boost consumer spending, and on possible supply disruptions due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $0.40 or 0.6 percent at $67.58 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide February data for unemployment later today; in January, the jobless rate was 3.1 percent.