Asian Stocks End Mostly Lower; Europe Falls

Stocks in Asia ended mostly lower Monday. The Shanghai Composite Index bucked the trend and ended 0.2% higher. Stocks in Europe were falling.

Author:: Joseph Woelfel
Publish date:: Sep 21, 2009 5:34 AM EDT

Updated from 4:22 a.m. EDT

HONG KONG (

TheStreet

) -- Stocks in China reversed course to end 0.2% higher Monday, while the rest of Asia was modestly lower as traders were anticipating the

Federal Reserve's

two-day meeting this week.

Shanghai's composite index gained 4.34 points to end at 2967.01. South Korea's Kospi index fell 0.3%, the S&P ASX 200 in Australia was off 0.3%, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined 0.7%.

Chinese stocks were led by technology, as the launch of a planned trading board for smaller companies approaches.

Investor interest in technology companies was sparked by the planned launch of the Growth Enterprise Board to help smaller private companies raise money. News reports say trading could start as early as next month.

"Anything related to innovation and technology was kindled by the coming board," said Zhang Xiang, an analyst for Guodu Securities in Beijing.

Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday.

Stocks in London were trading lower by 0.7%, Frankfurt shares were down 1.1% and Paris markets were posting a decline of 0.6%.

Premarket futures in the U.S. were lower, suggesting stocks would open down when trading in New York begins Monday. This week, investors will watch closely what the Fed has to say about the economy and the scale of the recovery after a two-day meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave rock-bottom interest rates unchanged, though investors will being looking for clues in the Fed's statement about when hikes might begin.

On Friday in New York, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose 36.28, or 0.4%, to 9,820.20, its highest close since Oct. 6, when it finished at 9,956. The index is up 11.9% for the year.

The broader

S&P 500

index rose 2.81, or 0.3%, to 1,068.30, while the

Nasdaq

composite index advanced 6.11, or 0.3%, to 2,132.86.

The dollar was trading at 92.11 yen up from 91.46 yen, while the euro was lower at $1.4653 from $1.4686.

Crude oil fell $1.31 to $71.25 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold for December delivery fell $9.30 to $1,001 an ounce, after dipping below $1,000 earlier in the session.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York