Additional Support Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 425 points or 2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 21,160-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, with support expected from the financials, technology stocks and oil companies. The European markets were solidly higher and the U.S. bourses were off on holiday and the Asian markets figure to open in the green.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Monday following mixed performances from the financials, properties and technology stocks, while the oil companies were soft.

For the day, the index improved 88.91 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 21,163.91 after trading between 20,839.02 and 21,175.98.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies accelerated 2.11 percent, while Alibaba Group eased 0.10 percent, Alibaba Health Info improved 1.02 percent, ANTA Sports soared 2.37 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.16 percent, China Mengniu Dairy climbed 1.43 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) retreated 0.57 percent, China Resources Land surged 8.36 percent, CITIC shed 0.40 percent, CNOOC plunged 3.61 percent, Country Garden skyrocketed by the 15 percent daily limit, CSPC Pharmaceutical slumped 0.56 percent, Galaxy Entertainment declined 0.98 percent, Hang Lung Properties strengthened 1.67 percent, Henderson Land jumped 1.78 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas added 0.36 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 0.44 percent, JD.com tanked 2.60 percent, Lenovo rallied 2.09 percent, Li Ning spiked 2.22 percent, Meituan rose 0.15 percent, New World Development lost 0.36 percent, Techtronic Industries tumbled 2.59 percent, WuXi Biologics advanced 1.04 percent and Xiaomi Corporation was unchanged.

Wall Street and many of the commodity markets were off on Monday for the Juneteenth holiday, but the European markets finished with solid gains.

Germany's DAX jumped 139.34 points or 1.06 percent to finish at 13,265..60, London's FTSE spiked 105.56 points or 1.50 percent to close at 7,121.81 and the CAC 40 in France gained 37.44 points or 0.64 percent to end at 5,920.09.

Bargain hunting was a big part of that following the weakness from last week that were fueled by worries about a recession and bets of bigger interest-rate hikes from major central banks.

The rally was also fueled by European Central bank President Christine Lagarde, who reaffirmed on Monday that the ECB will hike interest rates by 25 basis points twice this summer to fight inflation. Investors had worried that sharper rate hikes might be on the docket, sparking recession concerns.

Investors also await a congressional appearance by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell this week that could highlight the U.S. central bank's resolve to guide inflation back to the Fed's 2 percent target.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see Q1 numbers for current account and May inflation data later today. The current account surplus was HKD96.1 billion in the previous quarter. Inflation in April was down 0.2 percent on month and up 1.3 percent on year.