Asian markets close Thursday mostly in red

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Global markets, including Asia and Europe, saw negative results on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday an early interest rate hike.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 67.47 points, or 1.76%, to close at around 3,759 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange dropped by 844.29 points, or 2.88%, to 28,487, and China's Shanghai stock exchange decreased by 9.1 points, or 0.25%, to 3,586 points.

The Indian Sensex benchmark posted a decline of 633.30 points, or 1.05%, to close at 59,589 points.

Meanwhile, the Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, gained 165.61 points, or 0.72%, to reach 23,072, and the Singapore index also earned 20.86 points, or 0.66%, to reach 3,184.

- European markets

All major European indices also posted negative figures as of midday.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was down by 5.81 points, or 1.18%, to reach 488.54 points as of 0958GMT.

London's FTSE 100 decreased by 57.61 points, or 0.77%, to reach 7,459 points, and Germany's DAX index reached 16,072 points, down by 199.14 points or 1.22%.

The French CAC 40 lost 93.71 points, or 1.27%, to reach 7,282 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted a drop of 380.39 points, or 1.35%, to stand at 27,782 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also dropped by 97.9 points, or 1.11%, to 8,692 points.