Hong Kong Shares Due For Consolidation

The Hong Kong stock market has climbed higher in four straight sessions, jumping more than 900 points or 3.2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 30,030-point plateau although investors may lock in gains in Thursday’s half session ahead of the Lunar New Year break.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement in light trade ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, with some of the markets already on break. The European bourses were soft and the U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financials, properties, casinos and technology stocks – while the oil companies were soft.

For the day, the index spiked 562.53 points or 1.91 percent to finish at 30,038.72 after trading between 29,732.23 and 30,075.50.

Among the actives, Meituan skyrocketed 5.23 percent, while Hang Lung Properties surged 2.94 percent, Alibaba Group soared 2.58 percent, China Mengniu Dairy spiked 2.47 percent, ANTA Sports accelerated 2.23 percent, WuXi Biologics rallied 2.05 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China jumped 1.87 percent, China Life Insurance climbed 1.74 percent, China Resources Land gathered 1.61 percent, Wharf Real Estate perked 1.51 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties jumped 1.32 percent, New World Development climbed 1.14 percent, BOC Hong Kong and AIA Group both collected 1.08 percent, CNOOC skidded 1.01 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical advanced 0.74 percent, Techtronic Industries added 0.73 percent, Galaxy Entertainment gained 0.66 percent, Sands China rose 0.59 percent, Xiaomi Corporation increased 0.55 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) sank 0.52 percent, AAC Technologies improved 0.48 percent, Ping An Insurance added 0.39 percent, Power Assets and CK Infrastructure both perked 0.12 percent and Hengan International, Hong Kong & China Gas and CITIC were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as stocks showed a lack of direction again on Wednesday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed.

The Dow added 61.97 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 31,437.80, while the NASDAQ slid 35.16 points or 0.25 percent to end at 13,972.53 and the S&P 500 eased 1.35 points or 0.03 percent to close at 3,909.88.

Stocks initially moved higher following upbeat earnings news from big-name companies like Twitter (TWTR), Coca-Cola (KO), and Lyft (LYFT) but buying interest quickly waned as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets.

Stocks saw some strength in afternoon trading as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appeared to express support for more stimulus, as he said maintaining “patiently accommodative monetary policy” will be important to returning to a strong labor market but argued more needs to be done.

In economic news, the Labor Department said consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in January.

Crude oil prices continued to move higher on Wednesday, extending gains to an eighth straight session after data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended up $0.32 or 0.6 percent at $58.68 a barrel.