Renewed Support Likely For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market headed south again on Friday, one session after ending the two-day slide in which it had dropped almost 180 points or 1 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 17,610-point plateau although it's expected to bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished slightly lower on Friday as losses from the technology stocks were mitigated by support from the financials and a mixed picture from the property sector.

For the day, the index slipped 28.90 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 17,612.10 after trading between 17,493.08 and 17,635.70.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group climbed 1.22 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 3.95 percent, ANTA Sports eased 0.07 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.06 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skidded 1.14 percent, China Resources Land shed 0.92 percent, CITIC rose 0.13 percent, CNOOC advanced 0.99 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 2.88 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dropped 1.12 percent, Haier Smart Home jumped 1.27 percent, Hang Lung Properties slumped 1.24 percent, Henderson Land added 0.91 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.32 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.85 percent, JD.com dipped 0.09 percent, Lenovo plunged 2.93 percent, Li Auto gained 0.24 percent, Li Ning spiked 2.15 percent, Meituan retreated 1.38 percent, New World Development lost 0.82 percent, Techtronic Industries sank 1.04 percent, Xiaomi Corporation tumbled 1.47 percent and WuXi Biologics declined 1.35 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Friday and spent the whole day in the green, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 462.28 points or 1.14 percent to finish at 41,175.08, while the NASDAQ rallied 258.39 points or 1.47 percent to end at 17,877.79 and the S&P 500 advanced 63.97 points or 1.15 percent to close at 5,634.61.

For the week, the Dow shot up 1.3 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 1.4 percent and the S&P 500 spiked 1.5 percent.

The rebound on Wall Street came as highly anticipated remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the central bank is prepared to begin lowering interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting in September.

In other U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department noted a substantial increase by new home sales in the U.S. in July.

Following the rebound in the previous session, the price of crude oil showed another strong move to the upside on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery surged $1.82 or 2.5 percent to $74.83 a barrel after jumping $1.08 or 1.5 percent to $73.01 a barrel during Thursday's session. But the price of crude oil fell by 0.9 for the week due to sell-off earlier in the week.