Major Asian stock market indices declined today. Japan’s Nikkei index ended over 1.2 per cent lower, South Korea’s Kospi index fell nearly 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped almost 0.6 per cent, Singapore’s Straits Times Index dipped over half a per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.2 per cent.Major European indices were trading with gains today. France CAC 40 gained almost 0.7 per cent, Germany’s DAX rose 0.3 per cent, while London’s FTSE 100 was trading marginally up, when reports last came in. On the economic front, United Kingdom retail inflation rate fell to 2.8 per cent in April on an annual basis, down from 3.3 per cent in March this year, according to the latest figures released by the Office for National Statistics.
