Hong Kong shares outlook - Lower on regional weakness |
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Fri, 02 Mar 2007 03:02
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HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices are expected to open lower, extending this week's huge's losses, on continued weakness in the Tokyo market and renewed falls in China amid fears that Beijing will implement further credit-tightening measures, dealers said.However, the market's losses may be limited by stronger-than-expected manufacturing data in the US which helped Wall Street come off early sharp lows overnight, they said.Yesterday, the Hang Seng Index closed down 304.91 points or 1.55 pct at the day's low of 19,346.60, after an intraday high of 19,643.41. The index has tumbled 1,365.05 points or 6.59 pct so far this week.'The market situation is not stable yet. I see further strain... following the fall in Japan's stocks early today mainly because of the pressure on the yen. I believe the correction isn't over yet,' said Ben Kwong, research head at KGI Asia.He said China markets will be in focus amid fears of possible credit-tightening policies.Investors are uncertain whether the government will issue more market reform policies or tighten credit during the upcoming parliament session there.Kwong, however, said that any correction will be limited as the market has fallen over 1,000 points so far this week.'The market is relatively oversold, so selling-pressure will diminish a bit, but I don't expect the market to recover all that quickly today,' he added.Hopewell Holdings and unit Hopewell Infrastructure will be in focus after reporting strong first-half results yesterday.Hopewell Holdings's net profit for the first half to December grew 19 pct to 1.34 bln hkd on strong contributions from its property ventures in Macau and China, while the unit's net profit rose 21 pct to 682 mln hkd due to strong traffic flow on its expressways and gains from the appreciation of the yuan.SmarTone Telecom will also be watched after it announced that its net profit for the first half to December rose 17 pct to 43.53 mln hkd from 37.05 mln hkd a year earlier, due mainly to higher sales and finance income.HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Cathay Pacific and Swire will also be in focus ahead of results announcements next week.Shenzhen Expressway will announce its full year results today.(1 usd = 7.8 hkd)leonora.walet@xfn.comlw/rc
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