Hong Kong Stock Market May Halt Its Slide

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, stumbling more than 500 points or 2.9 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 17,525-point plateau although it may find support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to higher on uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and properties.

For the day, the index tumbled 275.55 points or 1.55 percent to finish at 17,524.06 after trading between 17,453.56 and 17,735.58.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dropped 1.51 percent, Alibaba Health Info slumped 2.19 percent, ANTA Sports added 0.42 percent, China Life Insurance sank 1.32 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 3.37 percent, China Resources Land retreated 2.91 percent, CITIC weakened 2.06 percent, CNOOC slid 0.43 percent, Country Garden tumbled 3.14 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical declined 2.40 percent, Galaxy Entertainment and WuXi Biologics both plummeted 4.26 percent, Hang Lung Properties shed 1.22 percent, Henderson Land skidded 1.66 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gained 0.33 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China lost 0.78 percent, JD.com rose 0.29 percent, Lenovo fell 0.72 percent, Li Ning eased 0.13 percent, Meituan stumbled 1.76 percent, New World Development surrendered 3.18 percent, Techtronic Industries plunged 3.53 percent and Xiaomi Corporation shed 0.96 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher on Monday but quickly faded and spent the rest of the day bouncing back and forth across the line before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 31.08 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 39,344.79, while the NASDAQ added 50.98 points or 0.28 percent to close at a record 18,403.74 and the S&P rose 5.66 points or 0.10 percent to end at 5,572.85 - also a record.

The inconsistency on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates ahead of several key economic events this week, including reports on consumer and producer prices.

Traders are also likely to pay close attention to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony this week, looking for clues about the interest rate outlook.

Oil prices fell on Monday after Hurricane Beryl forced the shutdown of some oil export facilities near Houston. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.83 or 1 percent at $82.33 a barrel.