Continued Support Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) – The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 1,470 points or 7.1 percent. The Hang Seng now rests just beneath the 19,900-point plateau and it’s expected to open higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with bargain hunting expected – especially among the oil and technology stocks. The European and US stock markets were sharply higher and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Friday with gains across the board – especially the technology stocks, financials and properties.

For the day, the index surged 518.47 points or 2.68 percent to finish at 19,898.77 after trading between 19,608.26 and 19,925.44.

Among the assets, AAC Technologies gained 1.12 percent, while Alibaba Group strengthened 2.75 percent, Alibaba Health Info skyrocketed 10.75 percent, ANTA Sports was up 0.45 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.54 percent, China Mengniu Dairy gathered 2.22 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical ( Sinopec) and CSPC Pharmaceutical both rose 1.4 percent, China Resources Land accelerated 5.46 percent, CITIC rallied 1.37 percent, CNOOC and Li Ning both increased 1.33 percent, Country Garden surged 10.41 percent, Galaxy Entertainment advanced 2.09 percent, Hang Lung Properties added 1.13 percent, Henderson Land was up 0.48 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas perked 1.80 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 2.24 percent, JD.com jumped 3.96 percent, Lenovo gained 0.13 percent, Meituan soared 6.75 percent, New World Development climbed 2.69 percent, Techtronic Industries rallied 5.26 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 6.56 percent and WuXi Biologics improved 1.57 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened Friday solidly higher and picked up steam as the day progressed, ending solidly in the green.

The Dow jumped 466.36 points or 1.47 percent to finish at 32,196.66, while the NASDAQ spiked 434.00 points or 3.82 percent to end at 11,805.00 and the S&P 500 advanced 93.81 points or 2.39 percent to close at 4,023.89. For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.8 percent, the S&P sank 2.4 percent and the Dow dropped 2.1 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came as traders went bargain hunting following the sharp decline shown by the markets over the past month.

While recent bargain hunting efforts have largely been thwarted by worries about the Federal Reserve aggressively raising interest rates in an effort to combat elevated inflation, traders seemed to shrug off those concerns.

In economic news, the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment deteriorated more than expected in May. Also, the Labor Department said import prices were unchanged in of April.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday, lifting the most active crude futures contracts on fears of supply shortage. West Texas International Crude oil futures for June ended higher at $ 4.36 or 4.1 percent at $ 110.49 a barrel.

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