The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, sinking more than 400 points 1.4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 28,440-point plateau and it's predicted to see continued consolidation on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation in reaction to the FOMC's monetary policy announcement. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.
The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks, casinos and technology companies.
For the day, the index retreated 201.69 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 28,436.84 after trading between 28,403.64 and 28,648.64.
Among the actives, AAC Technologies tumbled 2.81 percent, while AIA Group climbed 1.22 percent, Alibaba Group declined 1.45 percent, Alibaba Health Info advanced 0.80 percent, ANTA Sports skidded 1.66 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.13 percent, China Mengniu Dairy and CNOOC both slid 0.22 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rose 0.48 percent, China Resources Land added 0.56 percent, CITIC and Hong Kong & China Gas both dropped 0.82 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plummeted 5.48 percent, Galaxy Entertainment lost 0.49 percent, Hang Lung Properties surrendered 1.44 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China jumped 1.41 percent, Longfor fell 0.44 percent, Meituan plunged 4.50 percent, New World Development retreated 1.46 percent, Sands China eased 0.15 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties sank 0.83 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.52 percent, Xiaomi Corporation shed 0.71 percent, WuXi Biologics tanked 3.39 percent and Henderson Land was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks opened mixed and flat on Wednesday, but they all headed firmly lower into the close.
The Dow sank 265.66 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 34,033.67, while the NASDAQ shed 33.17 points or 0.24 percent to end at 14,039.68 and the S&P 500 fell 22.89 points or 0.54 percent to close at 4,223.70.
The weakness on Wall Street came as the Fed's latest economic projections now point to an increase in interest rates in 2023.
The latest projections from Fed officials suggest interest rates will be increased to 0.6 percent in 2023 compared to previous projections indicating rates would remain at near-zero levels. Seven officials expect a rate hike as soon as 2022.
As expected, the Fed also maintained its target range for the federal funds rate at zero to 0.25 percent, where it has remained since last March. The Fed said it expects rates to remain at near-zero levels until labor market conditions reach maximum employment and inflation is on track to moderately exceed 2 percent for some time.
Crude oil futures failed to hold early gains and settled roughly flat on Wednesday, despite data showing a larger than expected drop in crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.03 at $72.15 a barrel after peaking earlier at $72.99.
Closer to home, Hong Kong will release May numbers for unemployment later today; in April, the jobless rate was 6.4 percent.
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