Higher Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival, the Hong Kong stock market had moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day rally in which it had jumped more than 360 points or 2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just shy of the 18,370-point plateau although it's tipped to open in the green on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat with a touch of upside ahead of the FOMC statement on Wednesday. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to inch higher.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the property stocks, insurance shares and technology companies.

For the day, the index retreated 109.85 points or 0.59 percent to finish at 18,366.95 after trading between 18,302.33 and 18,575.69.

Among the actives, Alibaba Health Info rallied 2.12 percent, while ANTA Sports and Hong Kong & China Gas both rose 0.17 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.18 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 2.59 percent, China Resources Land gained 0.69 percent, CITIC sank 0.50 percent, CNOOC added 0.71 percent, Country Garden tumbled 1.93 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical advanced 1.01 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slumped 1.11 percent, Hang Lung Properties dropped 0.80 percent, Henderson Land skidded 0.87 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.14 percent, JD.com declined 1.45 percent, Lenovo plummeted 6.83 percent, Li Ning jumped 1.21 percent, Meituan surrendered 2.04 percent, New World Development perked 0.12 percent, Techtronic Industries plunged 2.76 percent, Xiaomi Corporation stumbled 1.89 percent, WuXi Biologics retreated 1.56 percent and Alibaba Group was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened lower on Monday before gradually climbing up into positive territory.

The Dow gained 69.05 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 38,868.04, while the NASDAQ added 51.90 points or 0.35 percent to close at 17,192.53 and the S&P 500 rose 13/80 points or 0.26 percent to end at 5,360.79.

Traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key events later this week, including the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting.

The Fed is due to announce its latest monetary policy decision on Wednesday, when the central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

Since the decision is largely seen as a foregone conclusion, traders are likely to pay closer attention to Fed officials' latest projections for the economy and rates.

Ahead of the Fed announcement, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its report on consumer price inflation in the month of May.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid optimism about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $2.21 or about 2.9 percent at $77.74 a barrel.