Ahead of Monday\'s holiday for SAR Establishment Day, the Hong Kong stock market had ticked higher again - one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had added more than 60 points or 0.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 17,720-point plateau and it\'s looking at a firm open on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European and U.S. markets finished slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.
The Hang Seng finished barely higher on Friday following gains from the energy companies, weakness from the technology stocks and a mixed picture from the property sector.
For the day, the index was up 2.11 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 17,718.61 after trading between 17,583.19 and 17,865.47.
Among the actives, Alibaba Group declined 1.47 percent, while Alibaba Health Info and ANTA Sports both retreated 1.57 percent, China Life Insurance lost 0.72 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 2.23 percent, CITIC rallied 2.16 percent, CNOOC surged 2.99 percent, Country Garden dropped 1.23 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 1.74 percent, Galaxy Entertainment fell 0.68 percent, Henderson Land shed 0.95 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas soared 2.41 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and CLP Holdings both jumped 1.53 percent, JD.com tumbled 2.09 percent, Lenovo slumped 1.43 percent, Li Ning skidded 1.29 percent, Meituan plunged 2.29 percent, New World Development advanced 0.69 percent, Techtronic Industries plummeted 4.03 percent, Xiaomi Corporation slid 0.36 percent, WuXi Biologics sank 1.20 percent and China Resources Land and Hang Lung Properties were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the markets opened slightly higher on Monday and hugged the line for much of the day before moving firmly into the green by the close.
The Dow added 50.66 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 39,169.52, while the NASDAQ rallied 146.70 points or 0.83 percent to end at 17,879.30 and the S&P 500 gained 14.61 points or 0.27 percent to close at 5,475.09.
The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders look ahead to the release of the Labor Department\'s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday. The report, which is expected to show a slowdown in the pace of job growth in June, could impact the outlook for interest rates.
Traders may also be sticking to the sidelines ahead of remarks by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday as well as the Independence Day holiday on Thursday.
On the U.S. economic front, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing manufacturing activity in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted at a slightly faster rate in June. Also, the Commerce Department noted a slight decrease in U.S. construction spending in May.
Oil prices rose sharply on Monday, on expectations of higher demand, supply concerns and production cuts by OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $1.84 or about 2.2 percent at $83.38 a barrel.
Closer to home, Hong Kong will release May data for retail sales later today; in April, sales tumbled 14.7 percent on year.