The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in six straight sessions, plummeting more than 1,200 points or 4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 28,075-point plateau and it's looking at another negative lead for Wednesday's trade.
The global forecast for the Asian is soft thanks to sinking oil prices and expected profit taking. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the property and technology stocks, while the casinos and oil companies were mixed and the financials offered mild support.
For the day, the index lost 70.64 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 28,072.86 after trading between 27,904.53 and 28,151.35.
Among the actives, AAC Technologies tumbled 2.79 percent, while AIA Group was down 0.21 percent, Alibaba Group soared 1.65 percent, Alibaba Health Info plunged 5.56 percent, ANTA Sports dipped 0.22 percent, China Construction Bank gathered 0.33 percent, China Life Insurance added 0.26 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surrendered 1.20 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 1.02 percent, China Resources Land surged 2.27 percent, CITIC jumped 0.59 percent, CNOOC spiked 1.45 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical tanked 4.16 percent, Galaxy Entertainment was up 0.08 percent, Hang Lung Properties sank 1.14 percent, Henderson Land dropped 1.08 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.49 percent, HSBC was up 0.22 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.44 percent, Longfor slid 0.47 percent, Meituan rallied 0.98 percent, New World Development lost 0.87 percent, Sands China skidded 1.84 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties declined 1.21 percent, Techtronic Industries retreated 1.70 percent, Xiaomi Corporation eased 0.19 percent and WuXi Biologics plummeted 8.41 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is inconsistent as the Dow and S&P 500 both opened lower Tuesday and stayed that way, while the NASDAQ was in and out of negative territory but finally finished slightly higher.
The Dow sank 208.98 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 34,577.37, while the NASDAQ added 24.32 points or 0.17 percent to end at 14,663.64 and the S&P fell 8.80 points or 0.20 percent to close at 4,343.54.
The pullback by the Dow and the S&P 500 was partly due to profit taking after the advance seen last Friday lifted all three major averages to new record closing highs.
Optimism about the economic outlook helped support the markets, although traders remain somewhat concerned about the outlook for monetary policy.
Negative sentiment may also have been generated by a report from the Institute for Supply Management showing its reading on service sector activity pulled back off a record high in June.
Crude oil futures settled sharply lower Tuesday as prices plunged after hitting a near seven-year high amid uncertainty about the major oil producers' production policy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $1.79 or 2.4 percent at $73.37 a barrel.
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