Asia markets post weekly gains, Europe positive with record in France

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major stock markets in Asia closed mixed on Friday but posted weekly gains, while indexes in Europe were positive with a record in French stock market CAC 40.

Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, added just 1 point to close at 3,880. It gained 0.74% for the week.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange climbed 92, or 0.33%, to 27,820 points, while it was up 0.51% this week.

Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, decreased 25 points, or 0.1%, to 26,179, while China's Shanghai stock exchange was down 8, or 0.24%, to 3,458 points. They rose 0.52% and 1.76% for the week, respectively.

The mixed closing on Friday came after Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei posted revenues 320.4 billion yuan ($49.6 billion) in the first half of the year, down 29.4% from 454 billion yuan during the same period of last year.

Denmark-based Maersk, the world's largest container shipping line and vessel operator, saw its revenue rise 44% to $26.7 billion during the first six months of 2021 and up 58% to $14.2 billion in the first quarter year-on-year.

In Europe, major indices saw increases on Friday with the CAC 40 extending its record to 6,792.83 points, before retreating to 6,782.29 at 1025GMT.

London's FTSE 100 and Spain's IBEX 35 were almost flat at the time, with 7,122 and 8,837 points, respectively.

Germany and Italy showed the largest gains as the DAX 30 rose 0.15% to 15,767 and Borsa Italiana FTSE MIB 30 added 0.52% to 25,798 points.

STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, showed a slight decline of 0.04% to 469.79.​​​​​​​