Hong Kong Shares May See Bargain Hunting On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, dropping more than 300 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,175-point plateau although it's tipped to open in the green on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key economic data later in the day. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index slumped 190.61 points or 1.04 percent to finish at 18,176.34 after trading between 17,994.10 and 18,267.69.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dipped 0.84 percent, while Alibaba Health Info dropped 1.55 percent, ANTA Sports retreated 2.64 percent, China Life Insurance stumbled 1.95 percent, China Mengniu Dairy declined 2.38 percent, China Resources Land slid 0.86 percent, CITIC tumbled 2.74 percent, CNOOC added 0.24 percent, Country Garden lost 1.08 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical weakened 1.71 percent, Galaxy Entertainment shed 1.13 percent, Hang Lung Properties plummeted 7.81 percent, Henderson Land surrendered 3.30 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas was down 0.34 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 1.36 percent, Lenovo rallied 2.07 percent, Li Ning fell 0.96 percent, Meituan surged 4.44 percent, New World Development tanked 3.36 percent, Techtronic Industries slumped 1.80 percent, Xiaomi Corporation skidded 1.70 percent, WuXi Biologics plunged 3.51 percent and JD.com was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday but trended to the upside as the day progressed and ended mixed.

The Dow slumped 120.62 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 38,747.42, while the NASDAQ rallied 151.02 points or 0.88 percent to close at a record 17,343.55 and the S&P 500 added 14.53 points or 0.27 percent to end at 5,375.32 - also a record.

The advance by the tech-heavy NASDAQ was partly due to a surge by shares of Apple (AAPL), with the tech giant surging 7.3 percent to a record after unveiling new AI features that may drive users to upgrade their devices.

But traders are looking ahead to two potentially major market moving economic events later today - the Labor Department's inflation report for May, and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement as well as officials' latest projections for the economy and interest rates.

Oil futures settled slightly higher Tuesday as caution reigned ahead of inventory data and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.16 at $77.90 a barrel.