The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which if had fallen more than 530 points or 2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 26,500-point plateau and it's looking at a steady start for Monday's trade.
The global forecast for the Asian is mixed, thanks to a combination of coronavirus concerns, coronavirus vaccines and expected profit taking. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Friday following major bargain hunting among the oil companies, plus mixed performances from the financials and properties.
For the day, the index advanced 95.27 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 26,505.87 after trading between 26,443.01 and 26,704.01.
Among the actives, CNOOC skyrocketed 6.11 percent, while China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) surged 4.52 percent, WuXi Biologics soared 2.84 percent, China Resources Land plummeted 2.17 percent, Ping An Insurance plunged 1.96 percent, BOC Hong Kong tanked 1.84 percent, Wharf Real Estate spiked 1.77 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical tumbled 1.65 percent, China Mobile skidded 1.45 percent, Alibaba Group accelerated 1.17 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 0.93 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.84 percent, CITIC rallied 0.72 percent, China Mengniu Dairy declined 0.72 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties gathered 0.67 percent, Galaxy Entertainment perked 0.66 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas surrendered 0.51 percent, Techtronic Industries advanced 0.49 percent, Power Assets sank 0.48 percent, AAC Technologies added 0.37 percent, AIA Group dropped 0.34 percent, WH Group gained 0.31 percent, Sands China lost 0.29 percent, Xiaomi Corporation fell 0.18 percent and New World Development rose 0.13 percent.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as stocks opened lower on Friday and saw limited movement but managed to finish mixed for the second straight day.
The Dow added 47.07 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 30.046.37, while the NASDAQ fell 27.93 points or 0.23 percent to end at 12,377.87 and the S&P 500 eased 4.64 points or 0.13 percent to close at 3,663.46. For the week, the Dow fell 0.6 percent, the NASDAQ lost 0.7 percent and the S&P was down 1 percent.
The uptick by the Dow was partly due to a strong gain by shares of Disney (DIS), which spiked 13.5 percent after the company forecast strong subscriber growth for Disney+ and announced an increase in the price of the streaming service.
The lower close by the broader NASDAQ and S&P 500 came as lawmakers in Washington remain at an impasse over a new fiscal stimulus bill. The Senate managed to pass a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, but the lack of a breakthrough on a new relief package has raised concerns among traders.
Selling pressure was relatively subdued, however, as traders also reacted to upbeat news regarding a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX).
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Friday as a surge in coronavirus cases and tighter restrictions on businesses raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.21 or 0.5 percent at $46.57 a barrel.
Closer to home, Hong Kong will see Q3 figures for industrial production later today; in the three months prior, output was down 5.1 percent on year.
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