ISTANBUL

Amid soaring COVID-19 cases, the new coronavirus variant Omicron caused concerns in Asian markets at the beginning of the new transaction week.

Asian markets closed Monday mostly in red, while European markets post positive signals.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 47.81 points, or 1.27%, to close at around 3,721 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange was also down by 467.7 points, or 1.63%, to 28,283. The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, decreased 228.28 points, or 0.95%, to 23,8521.

China's Shanghai stock exchange dropped by 1.39 points, or 0.04%, to 3,562 points, and the Singapore index lost 45.69 points, or 1.44%, to 3,120.


Meanwhile, the Indian Sensex benchmark was up by 130.15 points, or 0.23%, to close at 57,237 points.


European markets

Major European indices were in positive territory at midday.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was up by 3.37 point, or 0.73%, to 467.42 as of 1000GMT.

London's FTSE 100 increased by 50.74 points, or 0.72%, to 7,094 points, and Germany's DAX index reached 15,323 points, up by 66.69 points or 0.44%.

The French CAC 40 gained 46.48 points, or 0.69%, to 6,786 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB posted an increase of 167.68 points, or 0.65%, to 26,020 points.

Spain's IBEX 35 also rose by 53.60 points, or 0.64%, to 8,456 points.