Steady Start Anticipated For Hong Kong Stock Market

The Hong Kong stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 230 points or 0.9 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 25,090-point plateau and it's predicted to open in the slightly higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, with optimism for economic recovery tempered by renewed coronavirus concerns. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the casinos and technology stocks were capped by weakness from the properties and oil companies, while the financials were mixed.

For the day, the index climbed 118.48 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 25,089.17 after trading between 25,015.28 and 25,263.97.

Among the actives, Hengan International skyrocketed 7.13 percent, while Techtronic Industries surged 4.39 percent, China Mengniu Dairy soared 4.29 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical spiked 2.98 percent, Galaxy Entertainment accelerated 2.81 percent, WH Group jumped 2.79 percent, Tencent Holdings climbed 1.56 percent, Hang Lung Properties plummeted 1.46 percent, Sino Land plunged 1.22 percent, New World Development tanked 1.05 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) tumbled 0.90 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties skidded 0.82 percent, Ping An Insurance retreated 0.70 percent, China Life Insurance gathered 0.67 percent, CITIC perked 0.65 percent, Sands China advanced 0.63 percent, AIA Group declined 0.62 percent, CNOOC sank 0.58 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dropped 0.53 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.41 percent, AAC Technologies shed 0.38 percent, China Mobile added 0.37 percent, BOC Hong Kong fell 0.22 percent and Power Assets and Wharf Real Estate were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as stocks showed a lack of direction on Friday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing mixed.

The Dow shed 62.76 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 26,671.95, while the NASDAQ added 29.36 points or 0.28 percent to end at 10,503.19 and the S&P 500 rose 9.16 points or 0.28 percent to close at 3,224.73. For the week, the Dow added 2.3 percent, the NASDAQ sank 1.1 percent and the S&P rose 1.2 percent.

The U.S. saw a record 77,255 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Reflecting the widespread resurgence of the coronavirus, the University of Michigan reported an unexpected deterioration in U.S. consumer sentiment in July.

A steep drop by shares of Netflix (NFLX) also weighed on the markets, with the video streaming giant plunging by 6.5 percent after reporting Q2 earnings that missed estimates and forecast weaker than expected subscriber growth.

Crude oil prices edged lower Friday, weighed by concerns about the outlook for near-term energy demand due to the surge in new coronavirus cases. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.16 or 0.4 percent at $40.59 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release unemployment data for June later today, with the jobless rate expected to come in at 6.4 percent - up from 5.9 percent a month earlier.