Ahead of the long holiday weekend, the Hong Kong stock market had climbed higher in two straight session, gathering more than 260 points or 1 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 26,400-point plateau and it's likely to see little movement on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat in a traditionally slow week, with the regional bourses set to return after the long Christmas weekend and the end of the year just days away.
The Hang Seng finished slightly higher in Thursday's half session following gains from the financials, casinos and oil companies.
For the day, the index rose 43.46 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 26,386.56 after trading between 26,221.30 and 26,470.40.
Among the actives, Alibaba plummeted 8.13 percent, while AAC Technologies skyrocketed 7.07 percent, Galaxy Entertainment surged 2.99 percent, Meituan plunged 2.72 percent, CITIC soared 2.49 percent, China Resource Land spiked 2.46 percent, Sands China accelerated 1.82 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rallied 1.72 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.57 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.49 percent, CNOOC climbed 1.38 percent, BOC Hong Kong gathered 1.08 percent, ANTA Sports perked 0.96 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 0.85 percent, China Mengniu Dairy added 0.79 percent, Power Assets gained 0.74 percent, Techtronic Industries sank 0.74 percent, AIA Group rose 0.72 percent, Ping An Insurance increased 0.60 percent, New World Development fell 0.14 percent, WuXi Biologics and Sun Hung Kai Properties both were up 0.05 percent and CSPC Pharmaceutical, Henderson Land, Hong Kong & China Gas and Wharf Real Estate were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as stocks opened higher on Thursday and remained mostly positive to finish in the green in a half-day session on Christmas Eve.
The Dow added 70.04 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 30,199.87, while the NASDAQ gained 33.62 points or 0.26 percent to end at 12,804.73 and the S&P 500 rose 13.05 points or 0.35 percent to close at 3,703.06. For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ added 0.4 percent and the S&P fell 0.2 percent.
The modestly higher close on Wall Street came amid news that U.K. and the European Union have reached a post-Brexit trade agreement. The news of the agreement came just a week before a Dec. 31 deadline, offsetting recent concerns about a potential no-deal Brexit.
The rollout of coronavirus vaccines has also propped up hopes that the economic recovery can gain momentum next year. However, uncertainty about the stimulus package approved by Congress kept buying interest subdued as President Donald Trump has expressed opposition to the bill.
Oil service stocks showed a significant move to the downside, however, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index falling by 1.5 percent. The weakness in the sector came as the price of crude oil lingers near the unchanged line.
Closer to home, Hong Kong will see November figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In October, imports were up 0.6 percent on year and exports were down an annual 1.1 percent for a trade deficit of HKD36.8 billion.
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