Additional Support Tipped For Hong Kong Shares

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Friday halted the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 575 points or 2.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 25,980-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on easing oil prices and support from technology shares. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the oil companies, financial shares and the technology stocks.

For the day, the index gained 62.87 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 25,978.07 after trading between 25,639.26 and 26,004.59.

Among the actives, AIA and China Mobile both eased 0.12 percent, while Alibaba Group jumped 1.07 percent, Baidu improved 0.75 percent, Bank of China collected 0.19 percent, China Construction Bank soared 1.36 percent, China Life Insurance spiked 1.34 percent, China Merchants Bank tumbled 1.27 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical gained 0.44 percent, China Shenhua Energy rallied 0.89 percent, CITIC slipped 0.23 percent, CNOOC advanced 0.87 percent, Hong Kong Exchange dipped 0.15 percent, HSBC and Meituan both sank 0.78 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China accelerated 1.11 percent, JD.com slid 0.17 percent, NetEase dropped 0.87 percent, Nongfu Spring slumped 0.89 percent, PetroChina surged 2.07 percent, Ping An Insurance added 0.41 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing skyrocketed 10.01 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties lost 0.29 percent, Tencent Holdings shed 0.36 percent, Xiaomi Corporation perked 0.06 percent, WuXi AppTec increased 0.81 percent, Zijin Mining fell 0.27 percent and BOC Hong Kong was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the Dow opened lower and finished the same way, while the NASDAQ and S&P began in the green and picked up steam as the day progressed.

The Dow shed 79.59 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 49,230.71, while the NASDAQ surged 398.10 points or 1.63 percent to end at 24,836.60 and the S&P 500 gained 56.68 points or 0.80 percent to close at 7,165.08.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.4 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 1.5 percent and the S&P added 0.6 percent.

The rebound by the broader markets came amid a spike by shares of Intel (INTC) after the chipmaker reported much better than expected first quarter earnings and forecast Q2 revenues above estimates.

Buying interest was also generated in reaction to a pullback by the price of crude oil, which has soared over the past few sessions. President Donald Trump's announcement of a three-week extension of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has also weighed on crude oil prices.

Crude oil prices slumped on Friday as the prospects of a peace deal between U.S. and Iran gather steam, lowering Middle East tensions. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was down $1.68 or 1.75 percent at $94.17 per barrel.