Asia markets close week mixed amid China's Evergrande debt crisis

By Tuba Sahin and Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major stock markets in Asia closed mixed on Friday as the debt crisis of China's real estate developer Evergrande has intensified.

Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, rose 21 points, or 0.54%, to 3,937 at 1045GMT on Friday. But the index fell 1.05% on a weekly basis.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange gained 609 points, or 2.06%, to end the day at 30,249 following a holiday. It posted a weekly drop of 0.82%.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, posted the largest daily decline by plummeting 319 points, or 1.30%, to 24,192 at Friday's close, posting a 2.92% loss for the week.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was also on a low note, down 29 points, or 0.8%, to 3,613 points, while it was almost unchanged for the week by declining only 0.02%.

Singapore index decreased 15 points, or 0.49%, to 3,061, and the Indian Sensex benchmark gained 163, or 0.27%, to 60,048. While Singapore was down 0.32% this week, Sensex gained 1.74%.

Evergrande Group, which has $300 billion in liabilities that could default on its debt and cause millions of customers to lose deposits, said earlier this week that it will make a payment due Thursday on a 4 billion yuan ($620 million) bond that has a 5.8% interest rate, adding that details were "settled in negotiations outside the market."

China's second-largest property developer, however, missed the deadline of a $83.5 million interest payment that was due Thursday, and it has not made an announcement about it yet.

Although hopes of settlement carried Evergrande shares to a 17% recovery Thursday on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company's stock price lost 12% on Friday.

While the Chinese government has not yet announced its course of action for Evergrande, investors are worried that its collapse could create a domino effect in Asian real estate and financial markets and then hit other countries.