Wall Street mixed as Asia sees gains

In Europe, the continental markets saw gains on Wednesday while in the UK the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 reported declines. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 added 0.21 percent to 1,585.01, while the CAC-40 was up 0.3 percent to 6,051 and the Xetra Dax gained 0.5 percent to 7,475.99. The banking sector was higher on profits reports, while the chemicals sector saw declines on broker downgrades.

In London, the FTSE 100 dropped 0.01 percent to 6,549.6 and the FTSE 250 fell 0.42 percent to 12,057.1. The declines came even though there were some significant gains in the mining sector that were based on bids rumours.. Brewers saw gains as well, but the airlines sector saw some declines.

Equities markets in Asia and the Pacific were higher on the day. In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries added 0.59 percent to close at 6338, another new record. In India, the Sensex ended the session at 13,781.51, a gain of 0.12 percent. The Straits Times index in Singapore was 0.37 percent higher, to 3452.72, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 0.67 percent to 20,844.78. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.5 percent on the session to 17,748.12, while the Topix index closed at 1,745.01, a gain of 0.7 percent. Shipping was up by nearly 6 percent as a sector on profit forecasts for the current fiscal year after two companies forecast double digit growth for the year. There were also gains in heavy industries, but the telecommunications and brewing sectors saw declines on broker comments and poor results respectively.

At midday in New York Wall Street was mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up by 0.03 percent to 13,312.48. The Nasdaq Composite, however, was 0.35 percent lower to 2,562.78 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.06 percent to 1,506.78 as investors waited for the latest interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve. Homebuilders saw declines after warnings on guidances, while sectors related to computers were mixed. Some media companies were lower on profits that were up but not as high as had been anticipated by analysts.

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