(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower now in consecutive trading days, shedding more than 500 points or 2.3 percent in the process. The Hang Seng slid below the 21,250-point plateau, but now analysts are predicting a modest rebound at the opening of trade on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat with a touch of upside, drawing support from commodities after a fresh record high for gold was reached. Technology stocks and properties also are likely to move higher. The European markets finished sharply lower and the U.S. bourses ended mixed but little changed - and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday, suffering heavy losses among the financial, property, retail and utility sectors.

For the day, the index plunged 380.13 points or 1.76 percent to finish at 21,240.06 after trading between 21,684.73 and 21,223.42 on turnover of 61.01 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Among the decliners, HSBC shed 0.75 percent, while China Mobile dropped 1.76 percent, China Unicom lost 3.17 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 2.06 percent, China Construction Bank declined 2.36 percent, Bank of China dropped 2.65 percent, China Life fell 2.43 percent, Ping An shed 2.01 percent, PetroChina lost 2 percent, Sinopec was down 1.2 percent, CNOOC fell 2.86 percent, Cheung Kong declined 1.92 percent and HKEx fell 1.87 percent.

Wall Street provides little guidance as stocks saw a choppy trading session on Tuesday, despite some signs of life on the M&A front and positive news on factory orders. The major averages closed on opposite sides of the unchanged mark as some traders preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the release of key economic reports in the second half of the week.

In M&A news, Berkshire Hathaway entered an agreement to acquire the remaining shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe it does not already own for $100 per share. The transaction is valued at approximately $44 billion and is the largest ever made by Warren Buffet’s firm.

Further, power tool maker Stanley Works and Black & Decker Corp. said that they have entered into a merger agreement to create Stanley Black & Decker, an $8.4 billion global industrial leader, in an all-stock transaction valued at about $4.5 billion.

Amid a relatively light day on the economic front, the Commerce Department reported that orders for manufactured goods increased by a little more than expected in the month of September.

Factory orders increased by 0.9 percent in September following an unrevised 0.8 percent decrease in August. The increase in orders came in slightly above economist estimates for an increase of about 0.8 percent.

The major averages continued their sideways movement in late day trading, finishing on a mixed note. While the Dow fell by 17.53 points or 0.2 percent to 9,771.91, the NASDAQ closed up 8.12 points or 0.4 percent at 2,057.32 and the S&P 500 rose by 2.53 points or 0.2 percent to 1,045.41.

In economic news, the International Monetary Fund’s staff mission on Tuesday raised Hong Kong’s GDP forecasts for 2009 and 2010, as many of its economic indicators remained positive.

The lender expects the city economy to contract 2 percent this year, but post a 5 percent growth next year. In its World Economic Outlook released in October, IMF had forecast a 3.6 percent contraction for 2009 and 3.5 percent growth for next year. The assessment was made in the Preliminary Conclusions of the IMF Mission, following the 2009 Article IV consultation discussions.

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

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