(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 70 points or 0.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 26,785-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild consolidation ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement later today. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.
The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Tuesday as losses from the oil companies, financials and casinos were mitigated by support from the insurance stocks.
For the day, the index fell 104.50 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 26,786.76 after trading between 26,729.06 and 27,027.56.
Among the actives, WH Group surged 5.75 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical soared 1.95 percent, Sands China plummeted 1.67 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plunged 1.56 percent, Tencent Holdings tumbled 1.55 percent, Galaxy Entertainment skidded 1.40 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.06 percent, China Mobile declined 0.85 percent, CNOOC sank 0.82 percent, AAC Technologies dropped 0.71 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties advanced 0.70 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.43 percent, BOC Hong Kong lost 0.37 percent, Ping An Insurance climbed 0.33 percent, China Life Insurance added 0.20 percent, AIA Group fell 0.19 percent, New World Development rose 0.18 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas and Henderson Land both eased 0.13 percent and Power Assets Holdings and CITIC were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as stocks showed a lack of direction on Tuesday, as traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Fed's rate decision and statement.
The Dow shed 19.26 points or 0.07 percent to end at 27,071.46, while the NASDAQ lost 49.13 points or 0.59 percent to 8,276.85 and the S&P 500 fell 2.53 points or 0.08 percent to 3,036.89.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a wait-and-see approach even though the Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates by another quarter point.
Some negative sentiment was generated by reports suggesting a phase one trade deal between the U.S. and China may not be signed by the summit in Chile next month.
A mixed reaction to the latest batch of earnings news also contributed to the lackluster performance, with a notable drop by Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) weighing on the tech-heavy NASDAQ.
In economic news, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence unexpectedly edged lower in October. Also, the National Association of Realtors showed another significant increase in pending home sales in the U.S. in September.
Crude oil futures edged lower on Tuesday amid expectations that data from Energy Information Administration (EIA) will show a jump in crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December fell $0.27 or 0.5 percent at $55.54 a barrel, the lowest settlement in a week.
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