Asian, European markets close in negative territory

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Asian stocks closed the day in negative territory amid concerns related to the pandemic measures and rising number of COVID-19 cases along with debt problems particularly stemming from the real estate sector.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, dropped slightly by 0.19 points, or 0.02%, to close at nearly 3,911 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also down 126.18 points, or 0.43%, to 29,520. The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, saw a decline of 54.65 points, or 0.22%, to 25,099.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was down by 38.85 points, or 1.10%, to reach 3,505 points and the Indian Sensex benchmark saw a decline of 107.98 points, or 0.18%, to close at 60,030 points.

Only the Singapore index saw an increase of 13.32 points, or 0.41%, to read 3,232.

- European markets

European markets were mostly in red at the midday of the second transaction day of the week.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was down by 0.56 points, or 0.12%, to 478.31 as of 1030GMT.

London's FTSE 100 decreased 36.59 points, or 0.5%, to 7,252 points, and Germany's DAX index reached 15,868 points, up by 62.16 points or 0.39%.

The French CAC 40 gained 12.4 points, or 0.18%, to 6,905 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted a decline of 98.3 points, or 0.36%, to 27,107 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also dropped by 51.9 points, or 0.57%, to 9,130 points.