Lower Open Expected For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Thursday ended the six-day winning streak in which it had skyrocketed more than 4,200 points or 21 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 22,110-point plateau and it's still due for considerable profit taking on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday with profit taking in all sectors following the recent gains.

For the day, the index stumbled 330.22 points or 1.47 percent to finish at 22,113.51 after trading between 21,442.25 and 22,484.04.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dropped 4.43 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plunged 11.06 percent, ANTA Sports shed 3.04 percent, China Life Insurance, China Mengniu Dairy weakened 5.45 percent, China Resources Land stumbled 6.00 percent, CITIC slid 1.86 percent, CNOOC rallied 2.45 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical sank 3.27 percent, Galaxy Entertainment declined 5.54 percent, Haier Smart Home slipped 1.19 percent, Hang Lung Properties surrendered 6.61 percent, Henderson Land lost 2.76 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dipped 1.22 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eased 0.62 percent, JD.com tanked 7.94 percent, Lenovo fell 2.52 percent, Li Auto retreated 5.76 percent, Li Ning skidded 4.54 percent, Meituan surged 3.96 percent, New World Development plummeted 11.42 percent, Nongfu Spring slumped 5.11 percent, Techtronic Industries was down 1.15 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rose 0.21 percent and WuXi Biologics tumbled 7.00 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and largely remained in the red throughout the day, closing with modest losses.

The Dow dropped 184.93 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 42,011.59, while the NASDAQ eased 6.65 points or 0.04 percent to close at 17,918.47 and the S&P 500 fell 9.60 points or 0.17 percent to end at 5,699.94.

The lack of direction on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Labor Department's highly anticipated monthly jobs report on Friday.

The data could impact the outlook for the U.S. economy as well as expectations regarding how aggressively the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in the Middle East, where an escalating conflict has contributed to a sharp increase by the price of crude oil.

Oil prices moved up sharply on Thursday thanks to tensions in the Middle East, with the war between Israel and Iran raising concerns about supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended up $3.61 or 5.2 percent at $73.71 a barrel.