Hong Kong Shares May Hand Back Wednesday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday ended the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 400 points or 1.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 26,520-point plateau although it's expected to open to the downside on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with technology shares expected to fall under pressure. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday as the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies were mostly in the green. For the day, the index jumped 359.53 points or 1.37 percent to finish at 26,518.65 after trading between 26,057.26 and 26,562.88. Among the actives, Alibaba Group skyrocketed 9.16 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rallied 1.54 percent, ANTA Sports was up 0.32 percent, China Life Insurance rose 0.37 percent, China Mengniu Dairy sank 0.55 percent, China Resources Land shed 0.40 percent, CITIC slumped 1.22 percent, CNOOC advanced 0.85 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical dipped 0.21 percent, Galaxy Entertainment spiked 2.15 percent, Haier Smart Home accelerated 1.62 percent, Hang Lung Properties added 0.70 percent, Henderson Land gained 0.51 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.29 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.52 percent, JD.com surged 3.66 percent, Lenovo strengthened 1.43 percent, Li Auto jumped 1.59 percent, Li Ning and Nongfu Spring both increased 1.15 percent, Meituan climbed 1.19 percent, New World Development stumbled 2.48 percent, Techtronic Industries lost 0.30 percent, Xiaomi Corporation soared 2.61 percent and WuXi Biologics improved 1.16 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened slightly higher on Wednesday but gradually turned lower and finished solidly in the red.

The Dow shed 171.50 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 46,121.28, while the NASDAQ lost 75.62 points or 0.33 percent to close at 22,497.86 and the S&P 500 sank 18.95 points or 0.28 percent to end at 6,637.97.

The extended pullback on Wall Street may have reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the artificial intelligence trade following Tuesday's weakness.

AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) slid by 0.9 percent after tumbling by 2.8 percent on Tuesday, while fellow AI player Oracle (ORCL) slumped by 1.7 percent.

Concerns about valuations may also have continued to weigh on the markets after comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggesting he believes stocks may be overvalued.

Crude oil prices soared on Wednesday due to the increasing likelihood of Russian oil exports facing heavy U.S. sanctions. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for November delivery was up $1.61 or 2.54 percent at $65.02 per barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide August numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in July, imports were up 16.5 percent on year and exports rose an annual 14.3 percent for a trade deficit of HKD34.1 billion.