The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 400 points or 2.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,540-point plateau, although it may hand back some of those gains on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity with the outlook for interest rates shrouded in uncertainty. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Monday as the property stocks and technology shares ended mostly in the green.
For the day, the index improved 148.62 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 16,541.42 after trading between 16,345.90 and 16,725.61.
Among the actives, Alibaba Group strengthened 2.11 percent, while Alibaba Health Info rose 0.32 percent, ANTA Sports climbed 1.46 percent, China Life Insurance spiked 5.15 percent, China Mengniu Dairy declined 1.64 percent, China Resources Land added 0.61 percent, CITIC slumped 0.79 percent, CNOOC jumped 2.95 percent, Country Garden plummeted 4.93 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical retreated 1.91 percent, Galaxy Entertainment and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both dropped 0.76 percent, Haier Smart Home skyrocketed 8.22 percent, Hang Lung Properties gained 0.38 percent, Henderson Land tumbled 2.41 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas plunged 3.42 percent, JD.com soared 5.58 percent, Lenovo fell 0.33 percent, Li Ning accelerated 4.42 percent, Meituan surged 6.26 percent, New World Development sank 0.60 percent, Techtronic Industries tanked 2.75 percent, Xiaomi Corporation advanced 1.22 percent, WuXi Biologics rallied 3.92 percent and CK Infrastructure was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but spent most of the day in the red, although the NASDAQ ticked back up into the green by the session\'s end.
The Dow slumped 240.52 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 39,566.85, while the NASDAQ added 17.37 points or 0.11 percent to close at 16,396.83 and the S&P 500 fell 10.58 points or 0.20 percent to end at 5,243.77.
The early strength on Wall Street came as traders finally had an opportunity to react to last Friday\'s closely watched U.S. consumer price inflation data, which largely matched expectations.
Buying interest remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders expressed uncertainty about whether inflation is slowing quickly enough to guarantee the interest rate cuts expected by the Federal Reserve.
The subsequent pullback by stocks came as a report from the Institute for Supply Management unexpectedly showing modest growth in U.S. manufacturing activity in March contributed to a jump by Treasury yields.
Oil prices moved higher Monday amid concerns about a possible drop in supplies following reports of an Israeli strike near the Iranian embassy in Damascus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.54 or 0.65 percent at $83.71 a barrel.