Asia markets close week mixed amid China's Evergrande debt crisis

ANKARA

Major stock markets in Asia closed mixed on Friday as the debt crisis of China's real estate developer Evergrande has intensified.

Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, rose 21 points, or 0.54%, to 3,937 at 1045GMT on Friday. But the index fell 1.05% on a weekly basis.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange gained 609 points, or 2.06%, to end the day at 30,249 following a holiday. It posted a weekly drop of 0.82%.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, posted the largest daily decline by plummeting 319 points, or 1.30%, to 24,192 at Friday's close, posting a 2.92% loss for the week.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was also on a low note, down 29 points, or 0.8%, to 3,613 points, while it was almost unchanged for the week by declining only 0.02%.

Singapore index decreased 15 points, or 0.49%, to 3,061, and the Indian Sensex benchmark gained 163, or 0.27%, to 60,048. While Singapore was down 0.32% this week, Sensex gained 1.74%.

Evergrande Group, which has $300 billion in liabilities that could default on its debt and cause millions of customers to lose deposits, said earlier this week that it will make a payment due Thursday on a 4 billion yuan ($620 million) bond that has a 5.8% interest rate, adding that details were "settled in negotiations outside the market."

China's second-largest property developer, however, missed the deadline of an $83.5 million interest payment that was due Thursday, and it has not made an announcement about it yet.

Although hopes of settlement carried Evergrande shares to a 17% recovery Thursday on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company's stock price lost 12% on Friday.

While the Chinese government has not yet announced its course of action for Evergrande, investors are worried that its collapse could create a domino effect in Asian real estate and financial markets and then hit other countries.