Higher Open Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

The Hong Kong stock market has tracked higher in back-to-back trading days, advancing more than 450 points or 2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 23,380-point plateau and it may extend its gains again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive on optimism for economic recovery as economies continue to reopen. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks, casinos and oil and insurance companies.

For the day, the index surged 432.42 points or 1.88 percent to finish at 23,384.66 after trading between 23,165.49 and 23,481.48.

Among the actives, Henderson Land surged 4.82 percent, while China Mengniu Dairy soared 4.48 percent, Sands China spiked 3.97 percent, Sun Hing Kai Properties accelerated 3.93 percent, CITIC jumped 3.85 percent, Galaxy Entertainment climbed 3.81 percent, New World Development gathered 3.02 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas and Sino Land both perked 2.97 percent, AIA Group advanced 2.78 percent, China Life Insurance added 2.70 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical gained 2.58 percent, Tencent Holdings rose 2.11 percent, BOC Hong Kong increased 1.83 percent, WH Group was up 1.41 percent, CNOOC jumped 1.38 percent, China Mobile climbed 1.20 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) advanced 1.15 percent, Ping An Insurance added 0.93 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.88 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.20 percent and AAC Technologies rose 0.12 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as stocks opened firmly higher on Tuesday and remained well in the green throughout the session.

The Dow surged 529.95 points or 2.17 percent to finish at 24,995.11, while the NASDAQ added 15.63 points or 0.17 percent to 9,340.22 and the S&P 500 rose 36.32 points or 1.23 percent to end at 2,991.77.

The rally on Wall Street was fueled by optimism for a possible vaccine for the Covid-19 virus as U.S. biotech company Novavax said Monday it started the first human study of its experimental coronavirus vaccine and that it expects initial results on safety and immune responses in July.

There was also a positive reaction to news that several states are continuing to relax lockdown restrictions and reopening more businesses.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid rising optimism for improved energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $1.10 or 3.3 percent at $34.35 a barrel.