ISTANBUL

Major Asian indices closed the midweek in the negative territory amid recession concerns due to ongoing interest rate hikes, especially in the US, which decreases risk appetite globally.

The Indian central bank on Wednesday increased its policy interest rate by 35 basis points to 6.25%.

The US Fed is also expected to increase the interest rate by 50 basis points next week.

China's foreign trade rose by 8.6% to 38.34 trillion yuan (about $5.5 trillion) year-on-year in the first 11 months of this year, according to fresh official figures on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, China continues to take steps to ease COVID-19 measures, which led to protests in recent periods.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, was down 1.48% to 3,208.09 points, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.72% to reach 27,686.40.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, dropped 3.22% to 18,814.82 points.

China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange decreased 0.4% to close at 3,199.62, while the Indian Sensex benchmark fell by 0.34% to 62,410.68 points.

The Singapore index went down 0.83% to 3,225.45.