By DEBBIE CHU THE stock market is not expected to see drastic movement this week, although nervous sentiment will continue to dictate trading activity.
The market continues to be under pressure on the back of fears of an interest rate rise, an unstable property market, and threat of a trade war between China and the United States.
Despite a relatively strong performance on Wall Street last week, the local equity market is predicted to see more downward movement this week, reflecting it is reacting only to bad news, bearish brokers say.
After a couple of items of negative news, the Hang Seng Index suffered two slumps in the year's first trading week, plunging 6.2 per cent to close at 7,683.25 points last Friday.
Bearish brokers said last week's crash was not deep enough. Given the market outlook would remain unstable, they thought it would crash through the 7,000 level in the near future.
But believe it not, bullish brokers outline a rosy future for the market, which they expect will surge to the 10,000 level by the end of the year, because issues such as interest rates will be settled by the latter half.
