No Help Yet For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, tumbling almost 1,300 points or 6.4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,320-point plateau and it's looking at another soft lead for Monday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on concerns over the outlook for interest rates, while financial shares are especially likely to fall under pressure. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply lower and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday with losses in all sectors, especially the technology, oil and property stocks.

For the day, the index plummeted 605.78 points or 3.04 percent to finish at 19.319.92 after trading between 19,281.97 and 19,637.72.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group plunged 3.96 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surrendered 3.41 percent, ANTA Sports declined 2.71 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 2.70 percent, China Mengniu Dairy slumped 2.06 percent, China Resources Land stumbled 2.11 percent, CITIC dropped 1.12 percent, CNOOC plummeted 6.86 percent, Country Garden tumbled 3.87 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical skidded 1.75 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tanked 4.06 percent, Hang Lung Properties plunged 5.63 percent, Henderson Land retreated 2.31 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both sank 0.98 percent, JD.com plummeted 11.49 percent, Lenovo lost 0.54 percent, Li Ning declined 2.37 percent, Meituan slumped 1.55 percent, New World Development tumbled 2.93 percent, Techtronic Industries added 0.65 percent, Xiaomi Corporation tanked 3.73 percent and WuXi Biologics stumbled 2.26 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests consolidation as the major averages spent the morning session relatively unchanged but plummeted in the afternoon, finishing near session lows.

The Dow plummeted 345.26 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 31,909.64, while the NASDAQ tumbled 199.51 points or 1.76 percent to close at 11,138.89 and the S&P 500 slumped 56.73 points or 1.45 percent to end at 3,861.59.

The weakness on Wall Street came as concerns about the potential fallout from the implosions of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Silvergate Capital triggered a sell-off in the financial sector.

Investors also digested the crucial non-farm payroll data for the month of February. The data showing an acceleration in U.S. job growth raised concerns the Fed will continue to remain aggressive with regard to interest rate hikes.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday on Russia's decision to trim oil output by 500,000 barrels per day in March. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $0.96 or 1.3 percent at $76.68 a barrel, rebounding after three successive days of losses.