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 climbed almost 570 points or 2.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index closed just below the 24,500-point plateau, and now the market is looking at continued consolidation on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets remains soft, thanks largely to geopolitical concerns and airline woes. The European and U.S. markets ended lower, and the Asian markets are also expected to open in the red.
The Hang Seng finished slightly lower on Thursday as losses from the properties and telecoms were tempered by support from the oil companies and financials.
For the day, the index shed 31.15 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 24,497.08 after trading between 24,399.84 and 24,592.01 on turnover of 83.21 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Among the actives, Cheung Kong climbed 0.97 percent, while Wharf Holdings jumped 1.23 percent, Henderson Land slid 0.55 percent, Sino Land tumbled 0.96 percent, Bank of East Asia collected 1.17 percent, Kunlun Energy surged 2.58 percent, China Unicom dropped 1.20 percent, CNOOC spiked 1.54 percent, PetroChina gained 0.85 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surged 9.79 percent and Lenovo Group fell 2.08 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks remained lackluster on Thursday after an early move to the downside. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing modestly lower.
The Dow dipped 40.31 points or 0.2 percent to 17,678.23, while the NASDAQ slid 13.16 points or 0.3 percent to 4,863.36 and the S&P 500 edged down 4.90 points or 0.2 percent to 2,056.15.
The early weakness followed news that Saudi Arabia launched air strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Crude oil moved higher on the news of the escalation of the conflict, with crude for May delivery jumping $2.22 to $51.43 a barrel.
Negative sentiment was also generated by comments from French prosecutor Brice Robin indicating that the co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps brought the plane down deliberately.
On the economic front, the Labor Department reported a bigger than expected pullback in initial jobless claims in the week ended March 21.
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