Asian markets close day in red, European indices in negative territory

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Asian and European markets continued to post negative results on Thursday amid concerns over increasing COVID-19 cases in China, where travel restrictions have been tightened.

Meanwhile, debt problems of Chinese real estate companies, especially Evergrande, caused a decline in stock exchange markets.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 18.58 points, or 0.47%, to close at nearly 3,897 points.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also down by 278.15 points, or 0.96%, to 28,820.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, dropped 111.29 points, or 0.43%, to 25,517.

China’s Shanghai stock exchange was down by 44.01 points, or 1.24%, to 3,518 points, while India’s Sensex benchmark shed 663.98 points, or 1.09%, to close at 60,479 points.

The Singapore index saw a decline of 10.02 points, or 0.31%, to hit 3,208.

- 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 1.7 points, or 0.36%, to stand at 474.04 as of 0925GMT.

London’s FTSE 100 fell by 24.35 points, or 0.33%, to 7,253 points, while Germany’s DAX index dropped 51.25 points, or 0.33%, to 15,705.

The French CAC 40 was down by 12.99 points, or 0.19%, to 6,753 points, while Italy’s FTSE MIB posted a decrease of 164.76 points, or 0.61%, to 26,806 points.

Spain’s IBEX 35 also dropped by 18.9 points, or 0.21%, to 8,953.​​​​​​​