Hong Kong Shares May Take Further Damage Again On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking more than 600 points or 3.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,230-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of key inflation data 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 sharply lower on Thursday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties, energy companies and technology stocks.

For the day, the index declined 246.82 points or 1.34 percent to finish at 18,230.19 after trading between 18,163.21 and 18,537.92.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group was down 0.65 percent, while Alibaba Health Info climbed 1.13 percent, ANTA Sports surrendered 2.73 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 2.09 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tumbled 2.62 percent, China Resources Land plunged 3.16 percent, CITIC sank 1.48 percent, CNOOC declined 2.39 percent, Country Garden tanked 2.81 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rallied 1.19 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dropped 1.55 percent, Hang Lung Properties retreated 2.42 percent, Henderson Land slipped 0.81 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas lost 1.13 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China weakened 1.76 percent, JD.com slid 0.96 percent, Lenovo dipped 0.86 percent, Li Ning shed 1.43 percent, Meituan plummeted 3.37 percent, New World Development skidded 1.69 percent, Techtronic Industries fell 1.09 percent, Xiaomi Corporation eased 0.45 percent and WuXi Biologics stumbled 1.93 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened solidly lower on Thursday and remained well in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow plunged 330.06 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 38,111.48, while the NASDAQ tumbled 183.50 points or 1.08 percent to end at 16,737.08 and the S&P 500 sank 31.47 points or 0.60 percent to close at 5,235.48.

The weakness on Wall Street was fueled by concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of closely watched inflation data later today, which includes readings said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve.

A nosedive by shares of Salesforce (CRM) weighed on the Dow, with the software company plunging 19.7 percent after reporting weaker than expected revenues and guidance.

In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits crept modestly higher last week. Also, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product was revised down to 1.3 percent in Q1 from 1.6 percent.

Oil futures ended sharply lower on Thursday as a jump in gasoline inventories weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $1.32 or 1.7 percent at $77.91 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide April figures for retail sales later today; in March, sales were down 7.0 percent on year.