Lower Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday halted the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 500 points or 2.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,785-point plateau although it's expected to see renewed selling pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower on concerns over the outlook for interest rates and the health of the banking sector. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher following gains from the financials, properties and oil companies, while the technology stocks came in mixed.

For the day, the index jumped 216.96 points or 1.11 percent to finish at 19.785.65 after trading between 19,559.47 and 19,875.11.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group and CSPC Pharmaceutical both retreated 1.17 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 4.91 percent, ANTA Sports advanced 0.98 percent, China Life Insurance strengthened 1.55 percent, China Mengniu Dairy perked 0.15 percent, China Resources Land soared 2.17 percent, CITIC jumped1.67 percent, CNOOC rallied 1.78 percent, Country Garden and Meituan both surged 2.44 percent, Galaxy Entertainment sank 0.39 percent, Hang Lung Properties rose 0.27 percent, Henderson Land gained 0.56 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas added 0.58 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.20 percent, JD.com spiked 1.89 percent, Lenovo declined 1.26 percent, Li Ning improved 1.45 percent, New World Development increased 0.95 percent, Xiaomi Corporation climbed 1.17 percent, WuXi Biologics tumbled 1.53 percent and Techtronic Industries was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday, but they all headed south throughout the session and ended in the red.

The Dow shed 37.83 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 32,394.25, while the NASDAQ sank 52.76 points or 0.45 percent to end at 11,716.08 and the S&P 500 fell 6.26 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,971.27.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates amid a continued increase in treasury yields as the 10-year yield climbed further off last Friday's six-month closing low.

In economic news, the Conference Board unexpectedly reported a slight improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in March.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Tuesday on easing concerns about global banking sector woes, lifting the most active oil futures contract to a two-week closing high. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.39 or 0.5 percent at $73.20 a barrel.