Hang Seng May Reverse Thursday's Losses

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Friday's holiday for Labor Day, the Hong Kong stock market had turned lower again on Wednesday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 300 points or 1.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 25,775-point plateau although it's tipped to open to the upside on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on strength from the technology stocks and easing crude oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to higher and the Asian markets are likely to open in similar fashion.

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 335.31 points or 1.28 percent to finish at 25,776.53 after trading between 25,734.16 and 26,072.24.

Among the actives, AIA and Meituan both rose 0.12 percent, while Alibaba Group plunged 3.52 percent, Baidu slipped 1.00 percent, Bank of China retreated 2.32 percent, BOC Hong Kong jumped 1.45 percent, China Construction Bank stumbled 2.34 percent, China Life Insurance surged 4.45 percent, China Merchants Bank skidded 1.83 percent, China Mobile was down 0.99 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical slumped 1.91 percent, China Shenhua Energy contracted 1.99 percent, CITIC sank 1.53 percent, Hong Kong Exchange dropped 1.76 percent, HSBC eased 0.57 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tanked 2.63 percent, JD.com fell 1.02 percent, NetEase soared 2.29 percent, Nongfu Spring crashed 2.86 percent, PetroChina added 0.42 percent, Ping An Insurance lost 1.10 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing skyrocketed 7.75 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties cratered 3.00 percent, Tencent Holdings tumbled 2.38 percent, Xiaomi Corporation plummeted 3.72 percent, WuXi AppTec shed 1.31 percent, Zijin Mining declined 2.14 percent and CNOOC was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly positive as the major averages opened higher but bounced up and down all day, finally ending mixed.

The Dow dropped 152.83 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 49,499.27, while the NASDAQ rose 222.14 points or 0.89 percent to close at a record 25,114.44 and the S&P 500 added 21.11 points or 0.29 percent to end at 7,230.12, also a record.

For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 0.9 percent and the Dow increased 0.6 percent.

The early strength on Wall Street came amid a sharp increase by shares of Apple (AAPL), which saw better than expected Q2 results and forecast revenues for the current quarter above estimates.

In U.S. economic news, the Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing activity expanded for the fourth consecutive month in April.

Crude oil prices plunged on Friday on hopes for an end to hostilities even as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, continuing to disrupt crude oil supply. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was down $3.28 or 3.28 percent at $101.79 per barrel.