Asian stocks closes week with mixed figures

ISTANBUL

After a difficult week in global markets due to concerns over another rise in COVID-19 cases and climbing inflationary expectations, Asian stocks closed the week with mixed figures.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 14.89 points, or 0.38%, to close at nearly 3,890 points. The index closed last week at 3,930 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was up 72.60 points, or 0.25%, to 28,892. The index was also up from 28,804 points at last week’s close.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, saw a decline of 178.49 points, or 0.7%, to 25,337, while it was at 26,126 points at last week’s close.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was up by 28.92 points, or 0.82%, to reach 3,547 points, posting a slight decrease from last week’s close, 3,582.

The Indian Sensex benchmark saw a decline of 470.34 points, or 0.78%, to close at 59,514 points, losing over 2,000 points from last week's close of 61,821 points.

The Singapore index fell 5.41 points, or 0.17%, to 3,209, the same level as last week’s close.

European markets

Almost all major European indices were in negative territory at midday on 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 down by 2.15 points, or 0.45%, to 473 as of 0947GMT.

London's FTSE 100 fell 18.64 points, or 0.26%, to 7,230 points, and Germany's DAX index was at 15,566 points, down 130 points or 0.83%.

The French CAC 40 lost 22 points, or 0.32%, to 6,782 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted a decline of 118.5 points, or 0.44%, to 26,771 points.

Only Spain's IBEX 35 rose 1.4 points, or 0.02%, to 9,027 points.