Higher Open Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Friday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 310 points or 1.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 17,800-point plateau although it may find renewed support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index tumbled 228.69 points or 1.27 percent to finish at the daily low of 17,799.61 after peaking at 18,105.01.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dipped 0.34 percent, while Alibaba Health Info dropped 0.93 percent, ANTA Sports slumped 1.73 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.85 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 2.73 percent, China Resources Land declined 1.79 percent, CITIC eased 0.14 percent, CNOOC shed 0.64 percent, Country Garden plummeted 3.43 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical rallied 1.46 percent, Galaxy Entertainment plunged 3.29 percent, Hang Lung Properties added 0.31 percent, Henderson Land and ENN Energy both fell 0.47 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas rose 0.17 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China surrendered 2.69 percent, JD.com sank 0.68 percent, Lenovo tumbled 1.95 percent, Li Ning skidded 1.15 percent, Meituan lost 0.50 percent, New World Development slid 0.40 percent, Techtronic Industries slipped 0.17 percent, Xiaomi Corporation weakened 1.31 percent and WuXi Biologics advanced 0.72 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened flat but generally moved higher throughout the trading day, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 67.87 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 39,375.87, while the NASDAQ rallied 164.46 points or 0.90 percent to close at a record 18,352.76 and the S&P 500 gained 30.17 points or 0.54 percent to end at 5,567.19 - also a record.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.5 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.0 percent and the Dow advanced 0.7 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for June generated optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

While employment jumped by more than expected in June, the report also showed downward revisions to job growth in April and May as well as another unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate.

Treasury yields moved lower after the release of the report amid optimism the continued increase by the jobless rate will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in the near future.

Oil futures slipped on Friday, but still posted their fourth straight weekly gain amid optimism about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $0.72 or 0.86 percent at $83.16 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 2 percent in the week.