Asian, European markets in red amid China-US tensions

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Asian and European markets posted negative signals on Wednesday amid resurging tensions between China and the US.

Fears of confrontational moves gained ground after American authorities cancelled China Telecom’s operations license in the US on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, China’s recommendation to embattled real estate giant Evergrande, which has a known debt of $300 billion, to pay the amount with its own funds has also reduced the risk appetite in markets.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 27.01 points, or 0.69%, to close at nearly 3,915 points.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also down by 40.03 points, or 0.14%, to 29,255.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, dropped 348.8 points, or 1.35%, to 26,136.

China’s Shanghai stock exchange was down by 35.33 points, or 0.98%, to 3,562 points, while India’s Sensex benchmark shed 110.79 points, or 0.18%, to close at 61,239 points.

Only the Singapore index saw an increase on Wednesday, gaining 10.47 points, or 0.33%, to hit 3,215.

- European markets

All major European indices were in negative territory by midday.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was down by 2.14 points, or 0.45%, to 473.6 as of 0935GMT.

London’s FTSE 100 fell by 25.61 points, or 0.35%, to 7,252 points, while Germany’s DAX index dropped 79.91 points, or 0.51%, to 15,677.

The French CAC 40 was down by 28.67 points, or 0.42%, to 6,737 points, while Italy’s FTSE MIB posted a decrease of 147.29 points, or 0.55%, to 26,823 points.

Spain’s IBEX 35 also dropped by 64.2 points, or 0.71%, to 8,937.​​​​​​​