Asian markets close day in red

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Signs showing that high inflation will remain on the agenda longer than expected and Evergrande's asset-selling announcement for paying debts impacted Asian markets negatively on Thursday.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 11.68 points, or 0.30%, to close at around 3,890 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also down 89.67 points, or 0.30%, to 29,598. The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, decreased 330.36 points, or 1.29%, to 25,319.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was down 16.66 points, or 0.47%, to 3,520 points, and the Indian Sensex benchmark dropped 274.06 points, or 0.46%, to close at 59,734 points.

Meanwhile, the Singapore index earned 4.34 points, or 0.13%, to 3,237.

- European markets

Major European indices were mostly in positive territory at midday.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was up by 0.55 point, or 0.11%, to 490.50 as of 0945GMT.

London's FTSE 100 decreased by 8.36 points, or 0.11%, to 7,282 points, and Germany's DAX index reached 16,270 points, up 19.24 points or 0.12%.

The French CAC 40 gained 22.17 points, or 0.31%, to 7,179 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted an increase, rising 35.98 points, or 0.13%, to 27,860 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also rose by 2.6 points, or 0.03%, to 8,996 points.