The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in five of the last seven sessions, falling nearly 600 points in that time - but the Hang Seng Index is tipped to press firmly ahead when it opens for business on Friday. Markets around the world are called to head higher on a stronger finish from U.S. markets and the firmer likelihood of a larger interest rate cut at the end of the month. The market was sharply lower on Thursday, thanks to major declines in the energy and property sectors. The market reflected the performance of other regional bourses, most of which also declined on renewed fears of a U.S. recession. For the day, the index shed 384.99 points or 1.4 percent to close at 27,230.86 after trading between 27,115.82 and 27,596.50 on turnover of 123.32 billion Hong Kong dollars. Among the decliners, Cheung Kong was down 3.4 percent, while Sun Hung Kai Properties fell 3.5 percent, Sino Land dropped 3.9 percent, Sinopec was down 6.4 percent, PetroChina was down 2 percent, Datang Power was down 4.1 percent, China Power retreated 6.5 percent, China Mobile was down 1.1 percent, Cathay Pacific lost 1.7 percent, Lenovo tumbled 5.8 percent, MTR Corporation was down 4.5 percent and Esprit Holding was down 6.1 percent. Bucking the trend, China Unicom jumped 1.18 dollars, while China Telecom moved 6.1 percent higher, China Netcom was up 3.3 percent, China Eastern was up 5.9 percent and Air China was up 3.2 percent. Wall Street provides a positive if erratic lead as stocks closed higher in another volatile trading day on Thursday after a strong finish the day before. The markets benefited from comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The markets jumped higher after the comments by Bernanke increased bets that the Federal Reserve will reduce interest rates in the near future. The markets could not sustain the recovery, though, and soon fell back into negative territory. After reports that Countrywide Financial would be bought by Bank of America (BOA) surfaced, the markets jumped higher again, sending the major averages to new highs for the day. Though some of the gains were pared, the major averages closed sharply higher. The Dow closed up 117.78 points or 0.9 percent at 12,853.09, the Nasdaq closed up 13.97 points or 0.6 percent at 2,488.52 and the S&P 500 closed up 11.20 points or 0.8 percent at 1,420.33. In corporate news, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and its Dragonair unit carried 2.12 million passengers in December, up 10.4 percent annually, the company said. Cathay Pacific and Dragonair also shipped 147,800 tons of freight in December, up 2.9 percent on year. Passenger load factor rose 1.4 percent points on year to 80.8 percent in December, while the cargo and mail load factor was flat at 68.6 percent. For the year, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried 23.25 million passengers, up 4.3 percent, while cargo tonnage rose by 3.0 percent to 1.64 million tons. Also, Northeast Electric Development Co Ltd anticipates a total loss of about 220 million yuan for 2007 after China Development Bank won a 170.46 million yuan lawsuit against it. The bank brought suit in 2004 after Shenyang High Voltage Switchgear Co failed to repay the principal of a 150 million yuan loan. This month, the court cancelled a contract under which Northeast Electric swapped its creditor's rights of 76.66 million yuan for equity in Shenyang High Voltage.
January 10, 2008 8:48 PM