Alex Wong is the name of: (wikipedia)
We should have narrow range trading today with a downside bias on profit-taking.
There isn't much momentum in the banking sector; the sector simply moved along the general uptrend of the market today.
There probably isn't too much downside from here. The performance of other Asian markets is quite encouraging so I think the index may hold above 16,000 and maybe rise to 16,250 later in the day.
Regional markets are higher in the afternoon which helped the Hong Kong market up.
Profit-taking after yesterday's gains account for the softness in the market today.
I think the market could test 15,900 today but profit-taking will set in at that level.
The decline today was a disappointing end to the year. The weak performance was attributable to weak Asian stocks as well as profit-taking after recent gains.
Rumors about a merger of China's A and B markets, coupled with generally bullish expectations of further gains of China stocks, are driving buying interest in this sector.
Gains on Wall Street overnight and in Tokyo this morning helped the market recover.
Net interest margins in Hong Kong remain under pressure and Standard Chartered Bank's performance here in 2005 would likely not be as strong as in China and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific where it has expanded aggressively.
