Hang Seng May Test Support At 26,000 Points

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since ending the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 700 points or 2.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 26,380-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh. 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 lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index tumbled 384.70 points or 1.44 percent to finish at 26,391.02 after trading between 26,373.01 and 27,024.07.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group contracted 3.57 percent, while Alibaba Health Info declined 3.97 percent, ANTA Sports sank 2.54 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 4.10 percent, China Mengniu Dairy stumbled 4.15 percent, China Resources Land shed 2.15 percent, CITIC dipped 0.56 percent, CK Infrastructure surged 4.52 percent, CNOOC slumped 3.22 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plummeted 4.50 percent, Galaxy Entertainment tanked 4.25 percent, Haier Smart Home tumbled 3.29 percent, Hang Lung Properties slipped 1.10 percent, Henderson Land eased 0.40 percent, Hengan International rose 0.27 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas and Xiaomi Corporation both fell 1.18 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China skidded 0.62 percent, JD.com dropped 2.62 percent, Lenovo gained 0.31 percent, Li Auto plunged 4.45 percent, Li Ning added 0.63 percent, Meituan skidded 2.72 percent, New World Development crashed 5.92 percent, Nongfu Spring lost 1.56 percent, Techtronic Industries jumped 1.94 percent and WuXi Biologics cratered 7.45 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but trended lower throughout the day, finally ending on opposite sides of the line.

The Dow perked 17.05 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 49,499.20, while the NASDAQ tumbled 273.70 points or 1.18 percent to end at 22,878.38 and the S&P 500 lost 37.27 points or 0.54 percent to close at 6,908.86.

The pullback on Wall Street came amid a negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), even though the company reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter results and provided upbeat guidance.

Networking stocks also showed a notable move to the downside, contributing to the slump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

Crude oil prices saw early strength Thursday on Mideast tensions but couldn't hold the gains after progress was reported in talks between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was down by $0.11 or 0.2 percent at $65.31 barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see January figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In December, imports were up 30.6 percent on month and exports climbed 26.1 percent for a trade deficit of HKD63.3 billion.