Steady Start Seen For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, stumbling more than 410 points or 2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 20,360-point plateau although it may find traction on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement, with investors expected to wait and see what happens in terms of corporate earnings. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little hanged and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index tumbled 282.75 points or 1.37 percent to finish at 20,367.76 after trading between 20,336.71 and 20,633.00.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group retreated 2.69 percent, while Alibaba Health Info stumbled 2.56 percent, ANTA Sports lost 1.24 percent, China Life Insurance shed 1.27 percent, China Mengniu Dairy slumped 2.41 percent, China Resources Land skidded 1.92 percent, CITIC added 0.42 percent, CNOOC sank 1.56 percent, Country Garden plummeted 5.18 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical and WuXi Biologics both dropped 1.47 percent, Galaxy Entertainment surged 4.41 percent, Hang Lung Properties weakened 2.33 percent, Henderson Land tumbled 3.12 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 1.16 percent, JD.com surrendered 2.90 percent, Lenovo eased 0.23 percent, Li Ning declined 2.72 percent, Meituan eased 0.22 percent, New World Development tanked 3.31 percent, Techtronic Industries slid 0.66 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plunged 4.34 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street remains ambiguous as the major averages opened sharply lower on Wednesday but chipped away throughout the session to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 79.62 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 33,897.01, while the NASDAQ rose 3.82 points or 0.03 percent to close at 12,157.23 and the S&P 500 eased 0.35 points or 0.01 percent to end at 4,154.52.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders reacted to mixed earnings news as Netflix (NFLX) disappointed while Morgan Stanley (MS) and Travelers (TRV) beat the street.

Negative sentiment was generated by a jump in treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note reaching its highest level in nearly a month. The increase reflected concerns about global inflation after the U.K. said consumer prices increased more than expected in March.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve released its Beige Book report, noting U.S. economic activity was little changed in recent weeks, while the rate of price increases appeared to be slowing.

Crude oil prices slid on Wednesday on concerns that any further policy tightening by the Fed could hurt growth and significantly curb energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $1.66 or 2 percent at $79.24 a barrel.