Lower Open Predicted For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market opened to the upside again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 280 points or 1.4 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 20,600-point plateau although it's expected to move lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and fairly flat and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher again on Friday as gains from the technology stocks were capped by weakness from the financials and a mixed bag from the property stocks.

For the day, the index gained 100.55 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 20,590.15 after trading between 20,521.95 and 20,784.47.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group gained 1.27 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rallied 2.61 percent, ANTA Sports advanced 1.35 percent, China Mengniu Dairy accelerated 2.72 percent, China Resources Land sank 0.59 percent, CITIC perked 0.22 percent, CNOOC skidded 0.73 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical and JD.com both added 1.30 percent, Galaxy Entertainment improved 1.33 percent, Haier Smart Home lost 0.17 percent, Hang Lung Properties rose 0.77 percent, Henderson Land shed 0.58 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.63 percent, Lenovo strengthened 2.04 percent, Li Auto surged 5.10 percent, Li Ning jumped 2.45 percent, Meituan slumped 1.12 percent, New World Development soared 3.94 percent, Nongfu Spring increased 1.03 percent, Techtronic Industries climbed 1.86 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 2.77 percent, WuXi Biologics skyrocketed 5.95 percent and China Life Insurance and Hong Kong & China Gas were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street again offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but slumped as the day progressed to end mixed.

The Dow stumbled 259.96 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 42,114.40, while the NASDAQ added 103.12 points or 0.56 percent to close at 18,518.61 and the S&P 500 eased 1.74 points or 0.03 percent to end at 5,808.12.

For the week, the Dow tumbled 2.7 percent and the S&P 500 slumped 1.0 percent, but the NASDAQ rose 0.2 percent.

Stocks moved mostly higher early in the session amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for the economy after the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment unexpectedly improved in October.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as treasury yields rebounded following Thursday's pullback amid lingering concerns the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates slower than previously anticipated.

Oil prices rose sharply on Friday amid worries about geopolitical tensions and for potential output adjustments from OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $1.69 or 2.3 percent at $71.78 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 3.8 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release September figures for imports, exports and trade balance. In August, imports were up 7.9 percent on month ad exports rose 6.4 percent for a trade deficit of HKS33.1 billion.