Asian markets close Thursday mostly in red

ISTANBUL

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.