Soft Start Expected For Hong Kong Stock Market

The Hong Kong stock market has tracked higher in consecutive trading days, advancing more than 930 points or 4.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng now sits just above the 22,150-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with technology stocks and financials in particular likely targeted for profit taking. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology stocks and casinos.

For the day, the index jumped 264.80 points or 1.21 percent to finish at 22,154.08 after trading between 21,983.10 and 22,423.51.

Among the actives, AAC Technologies plunged 6.96 percent, while AIA Group climbed 1.03 percent, Alibaba Group surged 6.72 percent, Alibaba Health Info advanced 1.00 percent, ANTA Sports plummeted 7.12 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.15 percent, China Mengniu Dairy gained 0.22 percent, China Resources Land dropped 1.47 percent, CITIC stumbled 2.89 percent, CNOOC skidded 1.54 percent, Country Garden tumbled 2.96 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical soared 5.28 percent, ENN Energy rose 0.09 percent, Galaxy Entertainment jumped 1.77 percent, Henderson Land fell 0.30 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas tanked 3.91 percent, JD.com slumped 0.71 percent, Li Ning shed 0.44 percent, Longfor rallied 2.19 percent, Meituan strengthened 2.09 percent, New World Development accelerated 2.56 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 4.08 percent, WuXi Biologics skyrocketed 11.91 percent and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Hang Lung Properties and Techtronic Industries were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and remained that way largely throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 448.96 points or 1.29 percent to finish at 34,358.50, while the NASDAQ dropped 186.21 points or 1.32 percent to close at 13,922.60 and the S&P 500 sank 55.37 points or 1.23 percent to end at 4,456.24.

Lingering concerns about the ongoing war in Ukraine have contributed to the pullback on Wall Street along with a spike by the price of crude oil. U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to impose further sanctions on Russia during his trip to Europe this week.

Traders also were cashing in on recent strength in the markets, as stocks moved notably higher in five out of the six previous sessions, although they may be wary of continuing to buy stocks amid worries about the Russia-Ukraine crisis, inflation and higher interest rates.

Crude oil futures settled at over two-week highs on Wednesday, lifted by data showing a drop in U.S. crude inventories and worries about supply disruptions due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $5.66 or 5.2 percent at $114.93 a barrel.