Asian markets close week mostly in red

ISTANBUL

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.