Asian markets ended lower today. So Japan's NIkkei-225 index lost 1.1 per cent; China's Shanghai Composite index shed 0.4 per cent; Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 0.7 per cent; South Korea's Kospi index dropped 1.4 per cent and Singapore's Straits Times index fell 0.8 per cent
 
But in Europe, stocks extended the rally into the fourth straight day as investors were hopeful of a swifter global economic recovery, with German shares leading the advance among European Union members. So London's FTSE-100 had moved up 0.2 per cent; Germany's DAX had gained about 0.3 per cent and France's CAC-40 had risen 0.4 per cent, in intra-day trade.