Hong Kong Shares Likely To Open To The Downside On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Thursday ended the two-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 250 points or 1.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 20,400-point plateau although it may turn lower again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Thursday as the financials, properties and technology stocks were all mostly in the green.

For the day, the index advanced 242.00 points or 1.20 percent to finish at 20,397.05 after trading between 20,121.47 and 20,546.44.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group jumped 2.09 percent, while Alibaba Health Info climbed 1.62 percent, ANTA Sports rallied 2.49 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 1.30 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skyrocketed 7.21 percent, China Resources Land gathered 1.05 percent, CITIC increased 1.45 percent, CNOOC was up 0.67 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical fell 0.20 percent, Galaxy Entertainment added 1.24 percent, Haier Smart Home picked up 0.72 percent, Hang Lung Properties gained 1.23 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas perked 0.83 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.04 percent, JD.com dropped 0.81 percent, Lenovo improved 1.50 percent, Li Auto strengthened 2.03 percent, Li Ning accelerated 2.68 percent, Meituan rose 1.14 percent, New World Development tumbled 2.74 percent, Nongfu Spring spiked 3.70 percent, Techtronic Industries tanked 2.29 percent, Xiaomi Corporation surged 3.78 percent, WuXi Biologics slumped 1.41 percent and Henderson Land was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly headed south and remained in the red for the balance of day, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 234.44 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 43,914.12, while the NASDAQ sank 132.05 points or 0.66 percent to close at 19,769.84 and the S&P 500 lost 32.94 points or 0.54 percent to end at 6,051.25.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on the strong performance seen on Wednesday, when the tech-heavy NASDAQ closed above 20,000 for the first time ever.

Some negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of November.

While the Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower interest rates next week, the data has raised some concerns about how quickly the central bank will cut rates early next year.

Oil futures closed lower Thursday after three days of gains after the International Energy Agency's forecast that the oil market will see excess supply next year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.27 or 0.4 percent at $70.02 a barrel.