Hong Kong Shares Overdue For Support On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, slumping almost 1,250 points or 4.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 25,830-point plateau although it's expected to find traction on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with better-than-expected earnings news from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) expected to fuel the markets. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Wednesday as losses from the property stocks and technology companies were mitigated by support from the financials and oil companies.

For the day, the index lost 99.38 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 25,830.65 after trading between 25,742.07 and 26,045.37.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group climbed 1.16 percent, while Alibaba Health Info and Hang Lung Properties both dropped 0.87 percent, ANTA Sports jumped 1.62 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.07 percent, China Mengniu Dairy lost 0.67 percent, China Resources Land declined 1.15 percent, CITIC tumbled 1.23 percent, CNOOC strengthened 1.19 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical surrendered 2.07 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slumped 0.99 percent, Haier Smart Home added 0.55 percent, Henderson Land skidded 0.94 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas shed 0.68 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.31 percent, JD.com sank 0.70 percent, Lenovo slid 0.41 percent, Li Auto tanked 2.60 percent, Li Ning was down 0.17 percent, Meituan fell 0.61 percent, New World Development stumbled 1.88 percent, Nongfu Spring retreated 1.62 percent, Techtronic Industries plunged 2.83 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plummeted 4.81 percent and WuXi Biologics rose 0.06 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and hugged the line for most of the day before ending with modest gains.

The Dow added 47.03 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 46,138.77, while the NASDAQ jumped 131.38 points or 0.59 percent to end at 22,564.23 and the S&P 500 gained 24.84 points or 0.38 percent to close at 6,642.16.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the significant weakness of the past few sessions. The major averages slumped to their lowest closing levels in a month on Tuesday on lingering concerns about a potential AI bubble.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of earnings news Nvidia after the close of Wednesday's trading.

Stocks continued to show a lack of direction after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed officials had mixed views about the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil tumbled on Wednesday, with various data points reinforcing oversupply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $1.22 or 2.01 percent at $59.52 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release October figures for consumer prices later today; in September, consumer prices were up 0.1 percent on month and 1.1 percent on year.