Hong Kong Bourse Tipped To Open In The Red

The Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday ended the two-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 500 points or 1.8 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 28,820-point plateau although it may head south again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat amidst a lack of strong catalysts. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index surged 507.31 points or 1.79 percent to finish at 28,817.07 after trading between 28,406.61 and 28,893.79.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies gathered 1.73 percent, while AIA Group accelerated 2.99 percent, Alibaba Group jumped 2.07 percent, Alibaba Health Info fell 0.23 percent, ANTA Sports spiked 3.23 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 1.04 percent, China Mengniu Dairy soared 4.28 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) and New World Development both improved 0.24 percent, China Resources Land gained 0.76 percent, CITIC climbed 1.83 percent, CNOOC rose 0.56 percent, Country Garden Services surged 4.65 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical and Sun Hung Kai Properties both lost 0.34 percent, Galaxy Entertainment plunged 1.39 percent, Hang Lung Properties dipped 0.10 percent, Henderson Land was up 0.13 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas increased 0.49 percent, HSBC added 0.66 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.40 percent, Longfor added 0.81 percent, Meituan skyrocketed 5.19 percent, Sands China tanked 0.89 percent, Techtronic Industries sank 0.59 percent, Xiaomi Corporation perked 1.48 percent and WuXi Biologics rallied 2.89 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday and hugged the unchanged line throughout the session, finally finishing that way.

The Dow shed 71.34 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 33,874.24, while the NASDAQ added 18.46 points or 0.13 percent to end at 14,271.73 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.60 points or 0.11 percent to close at 4,241.84.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves amid uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent volatility.

Recent comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have eased some concerns about the outlook for monetary policy that weighed on the markets last week; Powell downplayed the risk of inflation and stressed the central bank would not raise rates preemptively.

In economic news, the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed another steep drop in new home sales in the U.S. in May.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday after data showed a larger than expected decline in U.S. crude inventories last week. However, the possibility of increased output from major oil producers limited oil’s surge. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for August ended up $0.23 or 0.3 percent at $73.08 a barrel.