Bargain Hunting May Give Hang Seng A Lift

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has tracked lower in back-to-back sessions, tumbling more than 550 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 20,050-point plateau although it may see mild support on Thursday.

The global forecast is mixed to higher as markets are expected to recover from selling pressure earlier this week. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the technology stocks, properties and oil companies.

For the day, the index plunged 483.23 points or 2.35 percent to finish at 20,051.25 after trading between 19,969.47 and 20,269.93.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tumbled 3.22 percent, while Alibaba Health Info slumped 2.74 percent, ANTA Sports and Li Ning both weakened 2.22 percent, China Life Insurance skidded 2.02 percent, China Mengniu Dairy shed 1.55 percent, China Resources Land tanked 3.57 percent, CITIC surrendered 3.03 percent, CNOOC retreated 2.75 percent, Country Garden plummeted 7.17 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plunged 6.23 percent, Galaxy Entertainment declined 2.78 percent, Hang Lung Properties sank 1.64 percent, Henderson Land fell 0.89 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas lost 1.10 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dipped 0.48 percent, JD.com and Meituan both plummeted 4.35 percent, Lenovo stumbled 2.39 percent, New World Development dropped 1.99 percent, Techtronic Industries tumbled 3.26 percent, Xiaomi Corporation tanked 4.15 percent and WuXi Biologics plunged 4.22 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as spent most of Wednesday bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, finally finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow lost 58.06 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 32,798.40, while the NASDAQ gained 45.67 points or 0.40 percent to close at 11,576.00 and the S&P 500 perked 5.64 points or 0.14 percent to end at 3,992.01.

The choppy trading on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following Tuesday's sell-off, which reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest following remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP said private sector employment in the U.S. increased more than expected in February. Also, the Labor Department said job openings in the U.S. fell to 10.8 million in January from 11.2 million in December.

Crude oil prices slipped on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about outlook for energy demand following Powell's remarks to Congress. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.92 or 1.2 percent at $76.66 a barrel.