Asian markets see mixed figures at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – After a couple of negative closes, Asian markets posted positive figures at Thursday's close following decisions by the US Federal Reserves' (Fed) on interest rate and purchasing asset.

Fed kept the interest rate constant at 0-0.25% and decreased the purchasing asset program's limit from $120 billion to $15 billion as of the end of this month.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, earned 28.47 points, or 0.73%, to close at around 3,930 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also up 273.47 points, or 0.93%, to 29,794. The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, gained 200.44 points, or 0.80%, to 25,225.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was up 28.33 points, or 0.81%, to 3,512 points.

Meanwhile, the Singapore index lost 12.68 points, or 0.39%, to 3,219, and the Indian Sensex benchmark dropped 257.14 points, or 0.43%, to close at 59,771 points.

- European markets

All major European indices were in positive territory at the midday.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was up by 2.27 points, or 0.47%, to 483.49 as of 0926MT.

London's FTSE 100 increased by 27.31 points, or 0.38%, to 7,276 points, and Germany's DAX index reached 16,000 points, up 40.96 points or 0.26%.

The French CAC 40 gained 28.26 points, or 0.41%, to 6,978 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted an increase, rising 100.88 points, or 0.37%, to 27,478 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also rose by 58.30 points, or 0.65%, to 9,089 points.