Asian, European markets see major losses with looming Fed, BoE meetings

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Asian markets closed with major losses on Monday, while European stock exchanges were in negative territory, as market sell-off intensified before the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England (BoE) meetings later this week.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, was down almost 100 points, or 3%, to 3,278 at 0930GMT.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange decreased 836 points, or 3%, to 26,987.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, was the worst performer of the day by plummeting 738 points, or 3.4%, to 21,067.

China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 29 points, or 0.89%, to finish at 3,255.

While the Indian Sensex benchmark dropped 1,500 points, or 2.76%, to end at 52,797, the Singapore index decreased 41 points, or 1.3%, to finish at 3,140.

In Europe, the STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was down almost 9 points, or 2.1%, to 413.66 at 0933GMT.

The UK's FTSE declined 120 points, or 1.65%, to 7,196, while Germany's DAX 30 shed 303 points, or 2.2%, to 13,458.

France's CAC 40 decreased 141 points, or 2.3%, to 6,045 and Italy's FTSE MIB fell 492 points, or 2.1%, to 22,060.

Spain's IBEX 35 was down 153 points, or 1.8%, to 8,237 at the time.

Major central banks' aggressive moves in their monetary policies intensify worries that the global economy could be pushed into a recession soon, causing fears in markets.

BoE is expected to continue its interest rate increases on Thursday, which would be its fifth consecutive rate hike. The Fed will also hike rates on Wednesday and it is widely anticipated to continue monetary tightening in its July and September meetings.

US stock market futures were down on Monday, pointing to possibly another losing session after ending Friday with its worst weekly performance since January.

While the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 futures were down around 2%, the Nasdaq futures fell over 3% apiece at 0936GMT.