The Hong Kong stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the six-day losing streak in which it had tumbled almost 1,140 points or 3.9 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 26,040-point plateau although it's likely to see renewed selling pressure on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, thanks to political uncertainty in the United States and ebbing optimism for a trade agreement between the U.S. and China. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.
The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares, insurance companies, casinos and property stocks.
For the day, the index advanced 96.58 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 26,041.93 after trading between 25,917.58 and 26,099.64.
Among the actives, China Resources Land surged 2.34 percent, while CSPC Pharmaceutical soared 2.30 percent, Techtronic Industries spiked 2.10 percent, New World Development accelerated 2.00 percent, WH Group jumped 1.31 percent, Tencent Holdings climbed 1.22 percent, AAC Technologies gathered 1.19 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) tumbled 1.07 percent, China Mobile skidded 1.00 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 0.98 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.96 percent, Sands China sank 0.70 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas perked 0.66 percent, CNOOC and Hang Seng Bank both shed 0.65 percent, CITIC lost 0.61 percent, Ping An Insurance advanced 0.44 percent, Henderson Land fell 0.41 percent, BOC Hong Kong slid 0.37 percent, AIA Group dipped 0.20 percent, China Mengniu Dairy was down 0.17 percent and Galaxy Entertainment rose 0.10 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as stocks opened lower on Thursday before showing signs of life in afternoon trade - although the major averages still finished in the red.
The Dow shed 79.59 points or 0.30 percent to 26,891.12, while the NASDAQ lost 46.72 points or 0.58 percent to 8,030.66 and the S&P 500 fell 7.25 points or 0.24 percent to 2.977.62.
The weakness on Wall Street came amid renewed political uncertainty following the release of the whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
In economic news, the Commerce Department said Q2 GDP growth was unrevised from the previous estimate, up 2.0 percent - slowing from 3.1 percent in Q1. Also, the National Association of Realtors noted a bigger than expected rebound in pending home sales in August.
Crude oil futures ended just marginally down on Thursday, as traders continued to weigh global crude demand and supply positions. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for November eased $0.08 or 0.1 percent at $56.41 a barrel.
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