Market Open: Hong Kong stocks seen lower on regional growth concern

Hong Kong stocks could continue to fall on Tuesday as investors take their lead from the broader region, where they have yet to see signs of an economic rebound, despite receiving a moderate boost from US quantitative easing earlier this month.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's said in a morning note on Tuesday that it has lowered its real GDP growth base forecasts for 2012, and now predicts 7.5 per cent GDP growth for China, which brings the world’s second largest economy closer to a hard landing. Standard & Poor’s is predicting  2.0 per cent base GDP growth for Japan, 2.5 per cent for South Korea, 2.1 per cent for Singapore and 1.9 per cent for Taiwan.

China's onshore market may receive a moderate boost from reports that the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges have received a warm response from global investors interested in investing in A shares after a 10 day North American roadshow by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, according to the Shanghai Securities News.

Overnight, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index closed down 3.26 points, or 0.22 per cent, to close at 1,456.89. The Nasdaq Composite lost 19.18 points, or 0.60 per cent, to 3,160.78. In London, the FTSE-100 Index lost 13.78 points, or 0.24 per cent, to end at 5,838.84.

Hot Stocks of the day:

Commodities stocks

Prices of crude, gold and copper have fallen in global trade on concerns that demand will be dented by the global economic slowdown. Investors may pocket recent gains from PetroChina (0857.HK), CNOOC (0883.HK), Zhaojin Mining (1818.HK), Zijin Mining (2899.HK) and Jiangxi Copper (0358.HK).

Retail stocks
Investors concerns about growth prospects in the Asia-Pacific may dent shares in consumer firms, and Belle International (1880.HK) and Tingyi (0322.HK) may be under pressure.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (0388.HK)

The world's No.2 exchange operator by market value said late Monday that it will issue convertible bonds worth US$400 million to help fund its purchase of the London Metal Exchange.

Prada (1913.HK)
The Milan-based company said net interim profit was 286.4 million euros, up 59.5 per cent from a year earlier, bolstered by the booming luxury market in China.

Cathay Pacific Airways (0293.HK)

Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company and Cathay Pacific Airways have teamed up to form a joint venture company, HAECO ITM, in Hong Kong to provide inventory technical management services to Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, as well as other airline customers. The total capital commitments for HAECO and Cathay are HK$210 million and HK$90 million respectively.