The Hong Kong stock market headed south again on Monday, one session after halting the four-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 1,100 points or 5.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 20,475-point plateau and its looking at another soft start again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative with profit taking likely for many of the regions. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.
The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board, especially among the entertainment and technology stocks.
For the day, the index stumbled 325.65 points or 1.57 percent to finish at 20,478.46 after trading between
20,423.09 and 20,845.57.
Among the actives, Alibaba Group tanked 2.69 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plunged 2.72 percent, ANTA Sports dropped 1.78 percent, China Life Insurance dipped 1.08 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skidded 1.85 percent, China Resources Land gained 0.76 percent, CITIC stumbled 2.42 percent, CK Infrastructure added 0.36 percent, CNOOC lost 1.37 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical declined 2.13 percent, Galaxy Entertainment plummeted 3.00 percent, Haier Smart Home fell 1.28 percent, Hang Lung Properties sank 1.49 percent, Henderson Land reduced 0.19 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slipped 1.13 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China gave away 2.09 percent, JD.com surrendered 2.46 percent, Lenovo eased 0.35 percent, Li Auto tumbled 2.43 percent, Li Ning slumped 2.10 percent, Meituan retreated 2.27 percent, New World Development slipped 0.98 percent, Nongfu Spring shed 1.46 percent, Techtronic Industries weakened 1.89 percent, Xiaomi Corporation slid 1.22 percent, WuXi Biologics was down 0.97 percent and CLP Holdings was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is mixed to soft as the major averages opened lower on Monday and largely stayed that way, although the NASDAQ broke into the green late in the day.
The Dow stumbled 344.25 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 42,931.25, while the NASDAQ gained 50.45 points or 0.27 percent to close at 18,540.01 and the S&P 500 fell 10.69 points or 0.18 percent to end at 5,853.98.
The mixed performance on Wall Street came as profit taking brought the Dow down from a record closing high, while tech shares boosted the NASDAQ to a three-month closing high.
Overall trading activity was relatively subdued as traders looked ahead to the release of a slew of corporate earnings news from big-name companies later this week.
In economic news, the Conference Board said its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators fell by more than expected in the month of September.
Oil prices moved higher on Monday on possible disruptions in supplies due to escalating tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended up by $1.34 or 1.94 percent at $70.56 a barrel.
Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide September data for consumer prices later today; in August, overall inflation was flat on month and up 2.5 percent on year.