(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market finished higher by just a handful of points on Thursday, but that was enough to extend its winning streak to two sessions. The Hang Seng Index remains barely above support at 13,000 points, but analysts predict that the market could hand it right back again at the opening of trade on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets continues to paint a gloomy picture, thanks to continued weak economic news and some mixed corporate data. The European markets finished in mixed fashion but little changed overall, while the U.S. markets finished sharply lower, with the Dow closing at a six-year low. After a bit of a breather on Thursday, the Asian markets are expected to resume their downward movement on Friday.

The Hang Seng finished barely higher on Thursday, boosted by mainland China stocks. The market recovered from considerable declines in the morning session to finish slightly in positive territory.

For the day, the index was up 7.36 points or 0.1 percent to close at 13,023.36 after trading between 12,788.08 and 13,055.72 on turnover of 35.48 billion Hong Kong dollars. Among the actives, Ping An Insurance rose 3.6 percent, while China Overseas Land added 3.8 percent, China Construction Bank rose 2.1 percent and HSBC fell 1.1 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is firmly negative as stocks show a notable move to the downside in late day trading on Thursday after showing a lack of direction for much of the trading session. The major averages all moved firmly into negative territory, with the Dow ending the session at its worst closing level since October of 2002. The choppy trading seen for much of the session came as traders digested another slew of economic news along with some mixed corporate news.

On the economic front, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its index of activity in the manufacturing sector fell to a negative 41.3 in February, its lowest reading since October of 1990. Economists expected the index to edge down to a negative 25.0.

Separately, a report from the Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims for the week ended February 14th came in at 627,000, unchanged from the revised figure for the previous week and moderately higher than the 620,000 that was expected by analysts. Producer prices increased by much more than economists had been expecting in the month of January, according to a separate report released by the Labor Department, with the increase partly due to a modest rebound in energy prices.

Meanwhile, communication services provider Sprint Nextel (S) moved sharply higher after reporting a smaller than expected fourth quarter loss and saying it expects that its total subscriber losses will improve in 2009. On the other hand, Dow component Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) showed a steep decline after the PC maker reported a notable decrease in fourth quarter earnings and provided disappointing guidance.

In other news, the Securities and Exchange Commission named Robert Khuzami to replace Linda Thomsen as the organization’s Director of the Division of Enforcement. The announcement came less than two weeks after Thomsen announced her resignation in the midst of a flood of scandals that occurred under her watch, including the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme operated by Bernard Madoff.

The major averages staged a failed recovery attempt going into the close, ending the session sharply lower. The Dow closed down 89.68 points or 1.2 percent at 7,465.95, the Nasdaq closed down 25.15 points or 1.7 percent at 1,442.82 and the S&P 500 closed down 9.48 points or 1.2 percent at 778.94.

In economic news, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Thursday that the composite interest rate, which reflects the average cost of funds of banks, declined by 26 basis points to 0.42 percent at the end of January from 0.68 percent at the end of December. In December, the composite interest rate decreased by 18 basis points. The report said the decline in the interest rate in January reflected downward adjustments in the time deposits and interbank rates.

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Posted in Categories: Eurozone, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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