The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, sinking almost 920 points or 3.7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 25,750-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian is soft following disappointing economic and earnings news, plus sinking crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the financials, properties, casinos, technology stocks and oil companies.
For the day, the index plunged 435.59 points or 1.66 percent to finish at 25,745,87 after trading between 25,615.38 and 26,258.79.
Among the actives, AAC Technologies stumbled 1.85 percent, while AIA Group soared 3.14 percent, Alibaba Group plummeted 4.77 percent, Alibaba Health Info and Wharf Real Estate both fell 1.01 percent, ANTA Sports tanked 4.54 percent, China Life Insurance and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both slid 0.91 percent, China Mengniu Dairy shed 1.26 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) weakened 1.90 percent, China Resources Land slipped 0.67 percent, CITIC sank 1.42 percent, CNOOC declined 2.30 percent, Country Garden plunged 4.65 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical added 0.72 percent, Galaxy Entertainment retreated 3.15 percent, Hang Lung Properties surrendered 2.13 percent, Henderson Land lost 1.25 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dipped 0.78 percent, Longfor and New World Development both were down 0.53 percent, Meituan skidded 3.52 percent, Sands China tumbled 4.38 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties eased 0.45 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.52 percent, Xiaomi Corporation dropped 1.41 percent and WuXi Biologics cratered 6.03 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened Tuesday in the red and stayed that way throughout the session.
The Dow tumbled 282.12 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 35,343.28, while the NASDAQ dropped 137.58 points or 0.93 percent to close at 14,656.18 and the S&P 500 sank 31.63 points or 0.71 percent to end at 4,448.08.
The weakness on Wall Street followed a Commerce Department report showing U.S. retail sales tumbled much more than expected in July.
A steep drop by shares of Home Depot (HD) also weighed on the markets, with the home improvement retailer plunging by 4.3 percent after reporting second quarter earnings that beat estimates but weaker than expected same-store sales growth.
Meanwhile, retail giant Wal-Mart (WMT) closed nearly unchanged after reporting better than expected second quarter results and raising its full-year guidance.
Crude oil futures settled lower Tuesday, extending losses to a fourth straight session, amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a surge in cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $0.70 or 1 percent at $66.59 a barrel.
Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide unemployment figures for July later today; in June, the jobless rate was 5.5 percent.
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