Hong Kong Bourse May Hand Back Wednesday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market bounced higher again on Wednesday ahead of the new year, one session after it had snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 450 points or 1.9 percent. The Hang Seng Index closed just above the 23,600-point plateau, although the market is looking at a lower open on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is slightly soft, with a heavy dose of volatility in what is expected to be light trade following the New Year's holiday. Weak economic data from the United States adds to the negative sentiment. The European markets were mixed on Wednesday and the U.S. bourses were down, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Wednesday as gains from the mainland financials and oil companies were dented by weakness from the telecoms and casinos.

For the day, the index advanced 103.94 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 23,605.04 after trading between 23,464.25 and 23, 632.35 on turnover of 43.94 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Among the actives, HSBC shed 0.13 percent, while Bank of East Asia climbed 1.13 percent, Henderson Land added 0.28 percent, New World Development jumped 0.79 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) advanced 0.64 percent, PetroChina gained 0.82 percent, China Unicom fell 0.57 percent, Sands China dropped 0.65 percent and China Life spiked 2.18 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks turned lower on Wednesday. While the pullback was exaggerated by light volume, the major averages showed a steep drop after opening higher.

The Dow tumbled 160.00 points or 0.9 percent to 17,823.07, while the NASDAQ slid 41.39 points or 0.9 percent to 4,736.05 and the S&P 500 slumped 21.45 points or 1 percent to 2,058.90. For the year, the Dow surged 7.5 percent, while the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 soared 13.4 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.

The pullback by stocks may partly have reflected profit taking on the last trading day of 2014 following the strength seen for much of the year.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted a bigger than expected rebound in initial jobless claims in the week ended December 27. MNI Indicators also said its Chicago business barometer fell to a five-month low in December.

On the other hand, the National Association of Realtors reported a bigger than expected rebound in pending home sales in November.