Hong Kong Bourse Due For Support On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping almost 180 points or 1 percent along the way. The Hang Seng now sits just beneath the 17,940-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is generally positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished barely lower on Monday following losses from the properties and a mixed picture from the financial and technology stocks.

For the day, the index eased 5.66 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 17,936.12 after trading between 17,752.96 and 18,122.80.

Among the actives, ENN Energy plummeted 3.47 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surged 2.98 percent, Country Garden Services plunged 2.70 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical tanked 2.20 percent, Meituan jumped 1.83 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas tumbled 1.52 percent, Alibaba Health Information retreated 1.43 percent, WuXi Biologics rallied 1.36 percent, Galaxy Entertainment declined 1.28 percent, LiNing stumbled 1.27 percent, CITIC slumped 1.06 percent, Haier Smart Home skidded 1.04 percent, New World Development dropped 1.03 percent, CNOOC sank 0.94 percent, Techtronic Industries advanced 0.78 percent, JD.com shed 0.70 percent, China Life lost 0.56 percent, Alibaba Group fell 0.41 percent, Lenovo Group slid 0.37 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eased 0.23 percent, China Resources Land rose 0.19 percent, Hang Lung Properties perked 0.14 percent, Xiaomi Corporation was up 0.12 percent and Henderson Land and ANTA Sports were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened lower on Monday but quickly turned higher and finished solidly in the green.

The Dow jumped 188.94 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,778.10, while the NASDAQ rallied 168.14 points or 0.95 percent to close at 17,857.02 and the S&P 500 gained 41.63 points or 0.77 percent to end at 5,473.23.

The buying interest that emerged on Wall Street came as the markets benefitted from the positive sentiment generated last week by tamer-than-expected inflation data.

While Federal Reserve officials forecast just one interest rate cut this year following last Wednesday's monetary policy meeting, traders remain hopeful the predictions will turn out to be overly conservative if inflation continues to slow in the coming months.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report this morning showing New York manufacturing activity contracted at a notably slower rate in June.

Oil prices rose to a fresh six-week high on Monday on hopes about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended higher by $1.88 or about 1.25 percent at $80.33 a barrel, the highest settlement since April 29.