(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, dropping more than 470 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 19,230-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Monday.
The global forecast is positive, supported by increasing oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were up on Friday and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion on Monday.
The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties, insurance companies and technology stocks.
For the day, the index plunged 371.14 points or 1.89 percent to finish at 19,229.97 after trading between 19,134.59 and 19,711.40.
Among the actives, Alibaba Group tanked 4.38 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plunged 5.59 percent, ANTA Sports lost 1.44 percent, China Life Insurance plummeted 7.07 percent, China Mengniu Dairy sank 1.52 percent, China Resources Land surrendered 4.03 percent, CITIC tumbled 3.66 percent, CNOOC dipped 0.58 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both dropped 1.93 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slipped 1.21 percent, Haier Smart Home was down 1.11 percent, Hang Lung Properties declined 3.43 percent, Henderson Land skidded 2.59 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas shed 1.50 percent, JD.com eased 0.29 percent, Lenovo fell 1.41 percent, Li Auto stumbled 3.61 percent, Li Ning retreated 3.57 percent, Meituan slumped 3.24 percent, New World Development weakened 3.20 percent, Nongfu Spring rallied 2.76 percent, Techtronic Industries slid 1.32 percent, Xiaomi Corporation jumped 1.42 percent and WuXi Biologics cratered 4.00 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Friday and mostly stayed that way, ending in the green.
The Dow surged 426.16 points or 0.97 percent to finish at a record 44,296.51, while the NASDAQ added 31.23 points or 0.16 percent to close at 19.003.65 and the S&P 500 gained 20.63 points or 0.35 percent to end at 5,969.34.
For the week, the Dow surged 2.0 percent, while the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 both shot up by 1.7 percent.
The advance by the markets came despite a pullback by shares of Nvidia (NVDA), as the AI darling tumbled by 3.2 percent despite having reporting better than expected third quarter earnings and revenues.
In U.S. economic news, revised data released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. improved less than expected in November - although the index is still at its highest level since April.
Oil prices climbed higher on Friday amid rising concerns about Russia/Ukraine conflict. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.14 or 1.6 percent at $71.24 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 6.5 percent in the week.
