Oversold Hang Seng Nonetheless Called To Open Lower

The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, giving away more than 870 points or 4.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 20,000-point plateau and it may give up that support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financials, properties and technology stocks.

For the day, the index tumbled 341.26 points or 1.68 percent to finish at 20,010.04 after trading between 20,006.78 and 20,233.64.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group plummeted 5.36 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surrendered 3.22 percent, ANTA Sports dropped 1.34 percent, China Life Insurance weakened 1.89 percent, China Mengniu Dairy shed 1.11 percent, China Resources Land slumped 2.43 percent, CNOOC lost 0.87 percent, Country Garden plunged 5.03 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical added 0.57 percent, Galaxy Entertainment soared 2.60 percent, Henderson Land slid 0.37 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gained 0.41 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.75 percent, JD.com tanked 4.75 percent, Lenovo retreated 2.48 percent, Li Ning skidded 1.55 percent, Meituan tumbled 3.38 percent, New World Development declined 2.59 percent, Techtronic Industries surged 4.40 percent, Xiaomi Corporation sank 1.15 percent, WuXi Biologics tumbled 2.74 percent and CITIC and Hang Lung Properties were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solidly negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and stayed in the red throughout the session, finishing near daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 336.98 points or 1.02 percent to finish at 32,816.92, while the NASDAQ slumped 195.46 points or 1.69 percent to close at 11,394.94 and the S&P 500 sank 42.28 points or 1.05 percent to end at 3,970.04.

For the holiday-shortened week, the S&P dove 2.7 percent, while the Dow plunged 3.0 percent and the NASDAQ plummeted 3.3 percent.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came after the Commerce Department reported an unexpected acceleration in the annual rate of growth by core consumer prices in January.

The unexpected spike in core consumer prices added to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates as the Federal Reserve may be inclined to leave interest rates higher for longer.

After coming under pressure early in the session, the price of crude oil showed a big turnaround over the course of the trading day on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery jumped $0.93 or 1.2 percent to $76.32 after falling as low as $74.09 a barrel in early trading.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see January figures for imports and exports later today; in December, imports were down 23.5 percent on month and exports tumbled 28.9 percent.