Hong Kong Shares Poised To Open To The Upside

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, tumbling more than 420 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just shy of the 25,400-point plateau also it's expected to find its footing on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday as the financial shares, technology stocks and properties were mostly in the red.

For the day, the index slumped 264.60 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 25,386.52 after trading between 25,341.73 and 25,833.71.

Among the actives, AIA advanced 0.89 percent, while Alibaba Group plummeted 4.47 percent, Baidu cratered 5.74 percent, Bank of China and Ping An Insurance both fell 0.57 percent, BOC Hong Kong collected 0.17 percent, China Construction Bank slipped 0.46 percent, China Life Insurance declined 1.37 percent, China Merchants Bank perked 0.09 percent, China Mobile lost 0.58 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical skidded 1.11 percent, China Shenhua Energy surrendered 3.01 percent, CITIC eased 0.31 percent, CNOOC stumbled 1.80 percent, Hong Kong Exchange dropped 0.92 percent, HSBC surged 2.16 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slumped 1.16 percent, JD.com tanked 3.36 percent, Meituan sank 0.91 percent, NetEase crashed 4.82 percent, Nongfu Spring gained 0.36 percent, PetroChina tumbled 2.32 percent, Semiconductor Manufacturing contracted 1.26 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties rose 0.29 percent, Tencent Holdings plunged 3.56 percent, Xiaomi Corporation retreated 1.59 percent, WuXi AppTec jumped 1.31 percent and Zijin Mining shed 0.73 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages spent the first half of Thursday in the red before bouncing firmly into positive territory, ending near daily highs.

The Dow climbed 276.31 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 50,285.66, while the NASDAQ added 22.74 points or 0.09 percent to end at 26,293.10 and the S&P 500 rose 12.75 points or 0.17 percent to close at 7,445.72.

The initial pullback on Wall Street came amid a substantial rebound by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures surging as much as 4.5 percent after plummeting by 5.7 percent on Wednesday.

Unable to hold those early gains, crude oil prices turned lower over the course of trading on Thursday as investors watched developments in the U.S.-Iran peace talks. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $1.41 or 1.43 percent at $96.85 per barrel.

Meanwhile, traders seemed to shrug off the negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), although the AI leader still slumped by 1.8 percent.