Hang Seng May Open In The Red On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday halted the four-day losing streak in which it had dropped nearly 700 points or 4.1 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 16,875-point plateau although it's expected to open lower again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on lingering concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead. The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks, oil companies and technology issues.

For the day, the index rallied 230.52 points or 1.38 percent to finish at 16,877.86 after trading between 16,684.78 and 16,988.26. Among the actives, Alibaba Group jumped 1.66 percent, while Alibaba Health Info slumped 1.21 percent, ANTA Sports gained 0.88 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.78 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surged 4.17 percent, China Resources Land sank 0.44 percent, CITIC increased 1.15 percent, CNOOC accelerated 2.01 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical climbed 1.37 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tumbled 2.22 percent, Hang Lung Properties perked 0.36 percent, Henderson Land added 0.91 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas strengthened 1.56 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rallied 1.91 percent, JD.com spiked 2.10 percent, Lenovo advanced 1.03 percent, Li Ning improved 1.16 percent, Meituan gathered 0.38 percent, New World Development lost 0.41 percent, Techtronic Industries soared 3.50 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rose 0.51 percent and WuXi Biologics stumbled 1.75 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened solidly higher on Wednesday but faded as the day progressed, finally ending with significant losses.

The Dow stumbled 234.21 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 38,763.45, while the NASDAQ sank 171.05 points or 1.05 percent to end at 16,195.81 and the S&P 500 dropped 40.53 points or 0.77 percent to close at 5,199.50.

Stocks initially continued to benefit from bargain hunting, as traders picked up stocks at relatively reduced levels following the recent sell-off.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy continued to hang over the markets.

Oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday as data showed a much larger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $2.03 or 2.75 percent at $75.23 a barrel.