Asian, European markets post mixed figures

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Amid growing concerns over rising COVID-19 cases in the region, Asian markets closed Monday with mixed figures.

Investors focused on companies' third quarter financial results this week, while China is expected to ease accessing finance due to the underperformer GDP figures, 4.9% in the third quarter versus expectations at 5.2%.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 5.86 points, or 0.15%, to close at nearly 3,924 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also down 204.44 points, or 0.71%, to 28,600.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, saw a slight increase of 5.1 points, or 0.02%, to 26,132.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was down by 27.26 points, or 0.76%, to reach 3,609 points and the Indian Sensex benchmark saw an increase of 153.62 points, or 0.25%, to close at 60,975 points.

The Singapore index decreased by 3.37 points, or 0.11%, to reach 3,201.

- European markets

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was flat at the midday of the first transaction day of the week at 471.90 points as of 0933GMT.

London's FTSE 100 increased 36.69 points, or 0.51%, to 7,241 points, and Germany's DAX index reached 15,567 points, up by 24.27 points or 0.16%.

The French CAC 40 lost 7.7 points, or 0.11%, to 6,725 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted an increase of 117.04 points, or 0.44%, to 26,688 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also dropped by 0.9 points, or 0.01%, to 8,905 points.