The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher in nine straight sessions, gathering more than 2,270 points or 13.3 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,475-point plateau and it's nonetheless tipped to open higher again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. bourses finished solidly higher and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.
The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Friday with gains across the board, especially among the financial, technology and property sectors.
For the day, the index rallied 268.82 points or 1.48 percent to finish at 18,475.92 after trading between 18,362.22 and 18,604.17.
Among the actives, Alibaba Group surged 4.07 percent, while ANTA Sports rallied 2.86 percent, China Life Insurance soared 3.70 percent, China Mengniu Dairy sank 0.59 percent, China Resources Land and Hong Kong & China Gas both climbed 1.51 percent, CITIC added 0.66 percent, CNOOC and Meituan both gathered 0.50 percent, Country Garden strengthened 1.84 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical increased 0.75 percent, Galaxy Entertainment spiked 3.59 percent, Hang Lung Properties rose 0.56 percent, Henderson Land gained 0.62 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 1.18 percent, JD.com skyrocketed 5.48 percent, Lenovo advanced 0.88 percent, Li Ning improved 1.39 percent, New World Development jumped 2.85 percent, Techtronic Industries eased 0.09 percent, Xiaomi Corporation accelerated 3.06 percent, WuXi Biologics plummeted 4.12 percent and Alibaba Health Info and CK Infrastructure were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is strong as the major averages opened sharply higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the session.
The Dow surged 449.98 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 38,675.68, while the NASDAQ rallied 315.33 points or 1.99 percent to close at 16,156.33 and the S&P 500 advanced 63.59 points or 1.26 percent to end at 5,127.79. For the week, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent, the Dow added 1.1 percent and the NASDAQ jumped 1.4 percent.
The rally on Wall Street followed the release of a closely watched Labor Department showing employment in the U.S. increased less than expected in April. The data helped generate optimism about the outlook for interest rates following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting earlier in the week.
Also, a separate report released by the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S. service sector activity unexpectedly contracted in April.
Oil prices fell on Friday, pushing the most active futures contract to their biggest weekly decline in about three months on concerns about the outlook for global oil demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down by $0.84 or 1.06 percent at $78.11 a barrel.
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