Asian markets close day with gains, Europe in positive territory

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – After strong sales earlier this week due to inflation concerns, Asian and European markets posted positive figures during the last transaction day of the week.

Inflationary concerns gave way to the optimism after US banks on Thursday posted strong earnings in the third quarter that boosted investors' confidence in economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, earned 50.90 points, or 1.32%, to close at nearly 3,914 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also up 517.7 points, or 1.81%, to 29,068. The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, saw an increase of 368.4 points, or 1.48%, to 25,330.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was up by 14.1 points or 0.4% to reach almost 3,572 points and the Singapore index increased by 9 points, or 0.29%, to reach 3,173.

The Indian Sensex benchmark saw an increase of 568.9 points, or 0.94%, to reach 61,305 points.

- European markets

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was up by 1.5 points, or 0.33%, to 467.4 as of 1010GMT.

London's FTSE 100 decreased 10.1 points, or 0.14%, to 7,217, and Germany's DAX index reached 15,506 points, up by 45.6 points or 0.28%.

The French CAC 40 lost 31.1 points, or 0.47%, to 6,716 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted a drop of 152.4 points, or 0.58%, to 26,429 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also dropped 35.7 points, or 0.40%, to 8,960 points.