Asian Economic News
Soft Open Expected For Hong Kong
11/24/2009 8:32 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
The Hong Kong stock market turned right back to the downside again on Tuesday, one day after it had halted the four-day losing streak in which it had shed nearly 500 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index ended just above the 22,420-point plateau, but now analysts are forecasting continued selling when the market opens for business on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets calls for slight weakness, thanks to a mild retreat in the price of commodities - except for gold - while properties, financials and technology stocks could fall under some pressure. The European and U.S. markets ended slightly lower, and the Asian bourses are also tipped to trend to the downside.
The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday, borrowing negative sentiment from the mainland China bourse that fell more than 3 percent. Financials suffered the biggest losses, while the shipping companies also ended lower.
For the day, the index shed 348.25 points or 1.53 percent to finish at 22,423.14 after trading between 22,395.38 and 22,813.93 on turnover of 67.08 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Among the decliners, China Construction Bank shed 3.4 percent, while Bank of China lost 4.0 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 1.7 percent, Bank of Communications was down 2.5 percent, China Citic Bank declined 1.0 percent, Hopson Development shed 2.0 percent, HSBC Holdings eased 0.84 percent, China COSCO Holdings lost 1.89 percent, China Shipping Development fell 3.27 percent, China Shipping Container Lines was down 2.04 percent, China Eastern Airlines eased 0.35 percent, China Southern Airlines lost 1.87 percent and Cathay Pacific Airways declined 0.87 percent.
Wall Street offers a modestly soft lead as stocks closed lower by slim margins on Tuesday, with the day's light volume limiting reaction to a batch of largely lackluster economic data. The major averages all closed in negative territory, offsetting a small portion of yesterday's strong gains.
Initial weakness in the equity markets came as traders reacted negatively to the Commerce Department's downward revision to the pace of GDP growth in the third quarter. The adjustment was slightly sharper economists had anticipated, although the data continued to show growth in the economy. The report said that GDP increased by an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter compared to the 3.5 percent growth that had been reported last month. Economists had been expecting the pace of GDP growth to be revised down to about 2.9 percent.
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