Overbought Hang Seng Likely To Open To The Downside

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has climbed higher in consecutive trading days, surging more than 875 points or 4.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,130-point plateau although it figures to head south on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with many of the overbought regional bourses likely to see profit taking. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares and properties, while the technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index gained 128.54 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 19,129.10 after trading between 19,072.72 and 19,592.43.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group sank 0.76 percent, while Alibaba Health Info skyrocketed 5.65 percent, ANTA Sports stumbled 1.74 percent, China Life Insurance accelerated 2.15 percent, China Mengniu Dairy declined 1.24 percent, China Resources Land tanked 2.46 percent, CITIC soared 3.54 percent, CNOOC fell 0.40 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical climbed 1.16 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 0.48 percent, Haier Smart Home advanced 1.08 percent, Hang Lung Properties jumped 1.86 percent, Henderson Land gained 0l20 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas lost 0.46 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rallied 1.70 percent, JD.com increased 0.96 percent, Lenovo shed 0.70 percent, Li Auto retreated 1.83 percent, Li Ning slumped 0.77 percent, Meituan improve 1.07 percent, New World Development spiked 2.50 percent, Nongfu Spring tumbled 2.13 percent, Techtronic Industries strengthened 1.42 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plunged 3.07 percent and WuXi Biologics surged 4.20 percent

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but trended lower throughout the session, finally ending mostly in the red.

The Dow stumbled 293.47 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 41,914.75, while the NASDAQ perked 7.68 points or 0.04 percent to close at 18,082.21 and the S&P 500 dipped 10.67 points or 0.19 percent to end at 5,722.26.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent strength, which has lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to record highs.

In economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing new home sales pulled back sharply in the month of August.

Data on weekly jobless claims, durable goods orders and personal income and spending are due later this week, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech later today is also in focus.

Oil prices fell sharply Wednesday on uncertainty about the outlook for demand and easing concerns over supply disruptions in Libya. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $1.87 or 2.6 percent at $69.69 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see August data for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In July, imports were up 9.9 percent on month and exports jumped 13.1 percent for a trade deficit of HKD21.8 billion.