Aviva adds 8 percent in London

European equities markets were mixed Monday.

In London, the FTSE 100 added 0.33 percent to 3,542.4 but the FTSE 250 was 1.06 percent lower to 5,769.79.

Insurer Aviva (LSE: AV) turned in the best performance on the 100 as it gained 8.39 percent but Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) dropped 7.26 percent on the session.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.64 percent to 657.86 while the Paris CAC-40 fell 0.6 percent to 3,519.29 and the IBEX dropped 1.72 percent to 6,817.4 in Madrid.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were also mixed.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 and the Topix index both closed at their lowest in at least a quarter century as the Nikkei was down 1.21 percent to 7,086.03, its lowest close in 26 years, while the Topix index ended 1.51 percent lower to 710.53, its worst close is 25 years and the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 1.19 percent to 280.49.

Other decliners in the region included the Taiex, which was down 0.55 percent to 4,628.24 while the Sensex dropped 1.99 percent to 8,160.4, the Shanghai Composite fell 3.39 percent to 2,118.75, the Straits Times Index was 3.71 percent lower to 1,456.95 and the Hang Seng dropped 4.84 percent to 11,344.58.

In Australia, on the other hand, the S&P/ASX200 added 0.29 percent to 3,154.5 and the Sydney Ordinaries gained 0.32 percent to 3,121.7, while the Kospi was 1.58 percent higher to 1,071.73 in South Korea.

At nearly 2 p.m. in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.55 percent to 6,590.46 while the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 1.05 percent to 1,280.24 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.22 percent to 681.9.

Crude oil prices rose while most metals were lower and grains prices were mixed.

The Japanese yen weakened as Japan’s Finance Ministry reported that the nation ran a trade deficit in January for the first time in 13 years.

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