Higher Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 560 points or 3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,220-point plateau although it's likely to rebound again on Wednesday.

The global forecast is murky amid a lack of true catalysts. The European markets were soft and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday with damage across the board, especially among the property and technology sectors.

For the day, the index plunged 415.60 points or 2.12 percent to finish at 19,220.62 after trading between 19,175.80 and 19,487.36.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group dipped 1.11 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 6.89 percent, ANTA Sports tanked4.20 percent, China Life Insurance declined 2.69 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plunged 4.44 percent, China Resources Land lost 1.37 percent, CITIC slid 1.26 percent, CNOOC slumped 2.24 percent, Country Garden fell 1.35 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 2.95 percent, Galaxy Entertainment surrendered 4.00 percent, Hang Lung Properties dropped 1.68 percent, Henderson Land sank 1.65 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas shed 1.53 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China gained 0.63 percent, JD.com tumbled 3.51 percent, Lenovo eased 0.39 percent, Li Ning weakened 2.12 percent, Meituan skidded 2.10 percent, New World Development tanked 4.05 percent, Techtronic Industries plunged 5.00 percent, Xiaomi Corporation retreated 2.92 percent and WuXi Biologics plummeted 6.13 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened lower but gradually picked up steam as the day progressed and ended with mild gains.

The Dow added 66.22 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 39,872.99, while the NASDAQ gained 37.75 points or 0.22 percent to close at a record 16,832.62 and the S&P 500 rose 13.28 points or 0.25 percent to end at a record 5,321.41.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came on renewed confidence the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates in the coming months, although recent comments from Fed officials have once again created some uncertainty.

While the likelihood rates will be lower by September remains high, the chances have fallen to 78.3 percent from close to 90 percent last week, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Another quiet day on the U.S. economic front may also have kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting later today.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, slumping for a second straight session amid concerns that the central bank might keep rates higher for a longer period. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June dropped to around $79.06 a barrel, down 0.74 or 0.93 percent.