Asian markets close week mostly in red

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Asian stocks closed the week mostly in negative territory amid debt issues in the Chinese real estate sector, including Kaisa Group and Evergrande.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 39.71 points, or 1.01%, to close at nearly 3,895 points. The index closed last week at 3,890 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was down 182.8 points, or 0.61%, to 29,611. The index was also up from 28,892 points at last week’s close.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, saw a drop of 354.68 points, or 1.41%, to 24,870, from 25,337 points at last week’s close.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was down by 35.3 points, or 1%, to reach 3,491 points, posting a slight decrease from last week’s close, 3,547.

The Indian Sensex benchmark saw an increase of 295.7 points, or 0.49%, to close at 60,067 points, up from last week's close of 59,514 points.

The Singapore index rose by 20.06 points, or 0.62%, to 3,239, up slightly from last week's close -- 3,209.

- European markets

Major European indices posted mixed figures at midday of the last transaction day of the week.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was up by 0.7 points, or 0.14%, to 483 as of 0920GMT.

London's FTSE 100 gained 32.92 points, or 0.45%, to 7,312 points, and Germany's DAX index was at 16,025 points, down 4.15 points or 0.03%.

The French CAC 40 earned 18.57 points, or 0.27%, to 7,006 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted an increase of 74.63 points, or 0.27%, to 27,596 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 dropped 2.5 points, or 0.03%, to 9,036 points.