(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, stumbling almost 720 points or 4.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,325-point plateau although it's due for support on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.
The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties and technology stocks.
For the day, the index plunged 318.19 points or 1.91 percent to finish at 16,327.86 after trading between 16,228.52 and 16,606.54.
Among the actives, Alibaba Group was down 0.42 percent, while Alibaba Health Info added 0.46 percent, ANTA Sports slid 1.19 percent, China Life Insurance weakened 1.75 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surrendered 3.28 percent, China Resources Land slumped 1.82 percent, CITIC fell 1.38 percent, CNOOC eased 0.16 percent, Country Garden tanked 3.59 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical lost 1.46 percent, Galaxy Entertainment jumped 1.35 percent, Hang Lung Properties sank 1.52 percent, Henderson Land and JD.com both skidded 1.64 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas shed 1.50 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 1.63 percent, Lenovo plummeted 10.22 percent, Li Ning rallied 2.66 percent, Meituan stumbled 2.08 percent, New World Development retreated 2.39 percent, Techtronic Industries tumbled 3.01 percent, Xiaomi Corporation declined 2.89 percent, WuXi Biologics plunged 8.45 percent and Nongfu Spring was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is again inconsistent as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday. The NASDAQ quickly broke into the green and ended positive, but the Dow and S&P stayed in the red.
The Dow shed 79.88 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 36,124.56, while the NASDAQ gained 44.42 points or 0.31 percent to close at 14,229.91 and the S&P 500 fell 2.60 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,567.18.
The initial weakness on Wall Street came as traders continued to cash in on recent strength in the markets amid concerns optimism about the outlook for interest rates has led to overbought conditions.
While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged in the coming months, traders may need more evidence to solidify hopes of a rate cut in the near future.
The subsequent rebound came as a Labor Department report may have reinforced those hopes, showing a bigger than expected decrease in U.S. job openings in October.
Oil prices dropped on Tuesday for a fourth straight session, on lingering concerns about the outlook for demand and on disappointment over the small size of additional output cuts announced by OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.72 or 1 percent at $72.32 a barrel.
