03/01/2012 00:01 AST

Ahead of Monday's holiday for New Year's Day, the Hong Kong stock market had ended the two-day slide in which it had declined more than 230 points or 1.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index finished just above the 18,430-point plateau, and now analysts are forecasting additional support for the market when it opens on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is generally upbeat, following the European bourses in a technical rebound after heavy selling pressure last week. Industrials and technology stocks are tipped to lead the markets higher on optimism that 2012 will bring an end to Europe's sovereign debt crisis, although financials and steel producers could remain soft on Tuesday.

The Hang Seng finished slightly higher on Friday, nudged into the green by gains from the financial shares.

For the day, the index gathered 36.47 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 18,434.39 after trading between 18,415.85 and 18,506.27 on volume of 24.47 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Among the gainers, BOC Hong Kong added 0.7 percent, while Ping An collected 0.5 percent and PICC Property and Casualty climbed 0.8 percent.

Wall Street was closed on Monday, but the European markets kicked off the New Year in style on Monday.

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Ticker Price Volume
Index Closing Change
NIKKEI 225 36,581.76 -251.51 (-0.68%)
DAX 18,699.40 181.01 (0.97%)
S&P 500 5,626.02 30.26 (0.54%)
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