(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished higher in back-to-back trading days, collecting more than 110 points or 0.4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 26,130-point plateau and it's looking at another green light for Tuesday's trade.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, largely riding optimism for earnings as the season progresses. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The Hang Seng finished slightly higher on Monday as gains from the technology stocks were offset by weakness from the properties.
For the day, the index rose 5.10 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 26,132.03 after trading between 25,929.67 and 26,212.90.
Among the actives, AIA Group jumped 1.73 percent, while Alibaba Group was down 0.23 percent, Alibaba Health Info plunged 2.22 percent, ANTA Sports plummeted 3.65 percent, China Life Insurance slipped 0.28 percent, China Mengniu Dairy soared 2.49 percent, China Resources Land skidded 0.89 percent, CITIC slid 0.38 percent, CNOOC rallied 1.29 percent, Country Garden retreated 1.22 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical dropped 0.80 percent, Galaxy Entertainment declined 1.41 percent, Hang Lung Properties dipped 0.33 percent, Henderson Land eased 0.15 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas added 0.51 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.46 percent, Li Ning surrendered 1.51 percent, Longfor tumbled 1.88 percent, Meituan sank 0.83 percent, New World Development shed 0.59 percent, Sands China tanked 2.16 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties lost 0.58 percent, Techtronic Industries spiked 2.18 percent, Xiaomi Corporation weakened 0.22 percent, WuXi Biologics surged 3.88 percent and AAC Technologies and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages shook off a soft start on Monday, climbing quickly into the green and finishing solidly higher.
The Dow added 64.13 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 35,741.15, while the NASDAQ spiked 136.51 points or 0.90 percent to close at 15,226.71 and the S&P 500 rose 21.58 points or 0.47 percent to end at 4,566.48.
The strength on Wall Street reflected optimism about more upbeat earnings news, with a slew of big-name companies due to report their quarterly results this week including Facebook (FB), General Electric (GE), UPS (UPS), Alphabet (GOOGL), Coca-Cola (KO), General Motors (GM), McDonald's (MCD), Ford (F), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (APPL), and Exxon Mobil (XOM).
Upbeat earnings news has contributed to a recent upward trend on Wall Street, as most companies have reported better than expected results.
Traders may also have been reluctant to make big moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week. The Fed is likely to leave interest rates unchanged but could announce plans to begin scaling back its asset purchase program.
Oil futures settled flat Monday as prices fell sharply from the day's high towards the end of the session, with traders weighing supply and demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude for December ended unchanged at $83.76 a barrel after peaking at $85.41 a barrel, a seven-year high earlier in the day.
Closer to home, Hong Kong will see September numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In August, imports were up 36.2 percent on year and exports rose an annual 25.9 percent for a trade deficit of HKD26.3 billion.
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