Asia mixed while Europe markets make good

Asian stock exchanges were mixed on Thursday, with advances in Taipei and Singapore but declines in Japan and South Korea.

In Europe, in contrast, markets were generally higher.

In London, the FTSE 100 closed up 0.4 percent at 4,893.2, while the FTSE 250 rose 1 percent to 6,807.2 on a volume of 3.1 billion shares.

Over in Europe, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 ended 0.6 percent higher, at 1,078.48, mostly due to good performance in the French banking sector.

In Singapore results were generally positive as the Straits Times index was up 0.4 percent to 2,181.19.

Meanwhile in Taipei, technology stocks took the Weighted Price index up 0.3 percent to 5,934.6.

Results were not so good in Japan, where the Nikkei 225 was down 0.4 percent to 11,077.94 while the Topix index also fell 0.4 percent to 1,140.49.

The disappointing performance there came as reaction continued to bad news that included poor corporate earnings reports.

Continuing worries concerning North Korea’s nuclear program sent the Kopsi index in Seoul down for the fourth day in a row. It lost 0.2 percent to fall to 921.21.

Story link: Asia mixed while Europe markets make good