Asian markets ended mostly lower today. Japan’s Nikkei-225 index shed 0.4 percent; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 1.6 per cent; South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 1.5 per cent and Singapore’s Straits Times index lost 0.6 per cent. But China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 0.6 per cent.

 
In Europe, key indices were little changed in intra-day trade with London’s FTSE-100 and France’s CAC-40 index had been trading marginally lower but Germany’s DAX had traded marginally higher.