Hong Kong Shares May Run Out Of Steam On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, rallying more than 275 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,700-point plateau although the rally may stall on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with mild downside likely from the oil and technology stocks. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets also figure to see little movement.

The Hang Seng finished slightly higher on Wednesday following gains from the properties, weakness from the energy companies and a mixed picture from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index added 41.34 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 19,705.01 after trading between 19,575.91 and 19,752.93.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group shed 0.59 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rose 0.52 percent, ANTA Sports was up 0.19 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.26 percent, China Mengniu Dairy climbed 1.06 percent, China Resources Land slid 0.21 percent, CITIC gained 0.56 percent, CNOOC fell 0.35 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical increased 0.58 percent, Galaxy Entertainment jumped 1.07 percent, Hang Lung Properties improved 0.63 percent, Henderson Land added 0.60 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas lost 0.50 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 0.63 percent, JD.com perked 0.22 percent, Lenovo eased 0.11 percent, Li Auto dropped 0.77 percent, Li Ning soared 1.37 percent, Meituan surged 1.69 percent, New World Development gathered 0.42 percent, Nongfu Spring tumbled 1.87 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 1.33 percent, Xiaomi Corporation slumped 1.06 percent, WuXi Biologics advanced 1.05 percent and Haier Smart Home was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Wednesday's trade in negative territory before a late push saw them finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 139.53 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 43,408.47, while the NASDAQ slipped 21.33 points or 0.11 percent to close at 18,966.14 and the S&P 500 perked 0.13 points or 0.00 percent to end at 5,917.11.

The late rally was fueled by optimism ahead of the release of earnings results from tech darling Nvidia (NVDA); the results, which came after the markets closed, were solid but fell short of their lofty expectations.

The volatility seen late in the session also came as trading activity was somewhat subdued amid a lack of major U.S. economic data.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make more significant moves as they kept an eye on developments overseas amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

Oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday on weak demand concerns and data showing an increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December slipped $0.52 or 0.75 percent at $68.87 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see October figures for consumer prices later today; in September, overall inflation was up 0.1 percent on month and 2.2 percent on year.