Steady Start Anticipated For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, slumping almost 540 points or 3.1 percent in that span. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 17,450-point plateau although it may see a measure of traction on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. unemployment data on Friday. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and oil and technology companies.

For the day, the index stumbled 194.15 points or 1.10 percent to finish at 17,457.34 after trading between 17,333.30 and 17,531.05.

Among the actives, Alibaba Health Info tumbled 2.05 percent, while ANTA Sports slumped 1.32 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 2.90 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skidded 1.08 percent, China Resources Land retreated 1.90 percent, CITIC dipped 0.40 percent, CNOOC plummeted 6.35 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical gained 0.41 percent, Galaxy Entertainment lost 0.67 percent, Hang Lung Properties sank 0.88 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.65 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.70 percent, JD.com advanced 0.86 percent, Lenovo dropped 0.95 percent, Li Auto slid 0.54 percent, Li Ning stumbled 1.12 percent, Meituan rose 0.25 percent, New World Development plunged 3.50 percent, Techtronic Industries declined 1.72 percent, Xiaomi Corporation surrendered 2.71 percent, WuXi Biologics added 0.73 percent and Alibaba Group and Henderson Land were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday, hugged the line for most of the day and finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 38.04 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 40,974.97, while the NASDAQ lost 52.00 points or 0.30 percent to close at 17,084.30 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.86 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,520.07.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following the substantial volatility seen over the past couple months.

Stocks have shown a substantial rebound or late, but are hampered by lingering concerns about the outlook for the economy.

Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday amid rising concerns about the outlook for demand following reports that OPEC is planning to restore 180,000 barrels per day of voluntary production cuts beginning next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.14 or 1.6 percent at 69.20 a barrel, a nine-month low.