Hong Kong Bourse May Remain Stuck In Neutral

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping almost 700 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 26,560-point plateau and it's likely to be rangebound on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement, with many markets shutting down this week for the Lunar New Year holiday. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index plummeted 465.42 points or 1.72 percent to finish at 26,567.12 after trading between 26,445.06 and 26,774.44.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group declined 2.02 percent, while Alibaba Health Info eased 0.16 percent, ANTA Sports advanced 0.90 percent, China Life Insurance plummeted 3.67 percent, China Mengniu Dairy lost 0.82 percent, China Resources Land tumbled 2.52 percent, CITIC surrendered 2.31 percent, CNOOC plunged 3.50 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical dipped 0.30 percent, Galaxy Entertainment perked 0.05 percent, Haier Smart Home slipped 0.51 percent, Hang Lung Properties was down 0.20 percent, Henderson Land shed 1.04 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.52 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 1.38 percent, JD.com skidded 1.85 percent, Lenovo surged 2.89 percent, Li Auto retreated 2.23 percent, Li Ning slid 0.46 percent, Meituan stumbled 3.18 percent, Nongfu Spring slumped 1.87 percent, Techtronic Industries sank 1.25 percent, Xiaomi Corporation added 0.88 percent, WuXi Biologics tanked 3.24 percent and New World Development and CLP Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but quickly inched higher before fading late to end mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 48.93 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 49,500.93, while the NASDAQ slipped 50.43 points or 0.22 percent to close at 22,546.67 and the S&P 500 perked 3.41 points or 005 percent to end at 6,836.17.

For the week, the NASDAQ tumbled 2.1 percent, the S&P dropped 1.4 percent and the Dow dropped 1.2 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of the Labor Department's highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation in January. The report showed consumer prices rose slightly less than expected on a monthly basis, while the annual rate of growth slowed by more than anticipated.

The tamer-than-expected headline inflation data led to some renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates and a continued slump by treasury yields.

Crude oil prices inched higher on Friday, regaining some ground following the steep drop seen in the previous session after the IEA lowered its demand forecast. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $0.06 or 0.1 percent at $62.90 a barrel.