Asian markets close negative ahead of US Fed meeting

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Coronavirus concerns and debt issues in the Chinese real estate sector continue to dampen the appetite for risk in Asian markets, where markets closed in the red before a US Federal Reserve meeting decision later Wednesday.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, earned 1.71 points, or 0.04%, to close at around 3,906 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was down 126.18 points, or 0.43%, to 29,520. The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, dove 74.92 points, or 0.3%, to 25,024.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was down 7.09 points, or 0.2%, to 3,498 points, and the Singapore index lost 12.68 points, or 0.39%, to 3,219.

The Indian Sensex benchmark dropped 250.49 points, or 0.42%, to close at 59,778 points.

- European markets

Almost all major European indices were in negative territory as the week passed the midday mark.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was down by 0.07 points, or 0.01%, to 479.46 as of 0947MT.

London's FTSE 100 shed 23.09 points, or 0.32%, to 7,251 points, and Germany's DAX index reached 15,936 points, down 17.79 points or 0.11%.

The French CAC 40 lost 7.96 points, or 0.11%, to 6,919 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB was the only index to post an increase, rising 18.63 points, or 0.06%, to 27,206 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also dropped 53.10 points, or 0.58%, to 9,052 points.