Global stocks were mostly lower Monday after a subdued increase in Chinese house prices fanned fears of weakness in the world's No. 2 economy, AP reported. In Europe, Germany's DAX shed 0.8 percent to 9,548.82 and France's CAC 40 dropped 0.7 percent to 4,425.71. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.6 percent to 6,814.49. Futures pointed to losses on Wall Street. Dow and S&P 500 futures were both down 0.4 percent. In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.1 percent to 2,005.18 after month-on-month gains in housing prices slowed to 0.1 percent in April from March's 0.3 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was little changed at 22,704.50. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 0.6 percent to 14,006.44 despite a report that March machinery orders soared 19.1 percent from a year earlier, beating expectations Elsewhere, Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 tumbled 1.3 percent to 5,409. Seoul's Kospi gained 0.1 percent to 2,015.14 and Taiwan's Taiex added 0.1 percent to 8,899.90. Benchmarks in Singapore and Indonesia fell. India's Sensex rose 1 percent to 24,358.72, getting another boost from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide election victory. The index surged as much as 6.1 percent on Friday after preliminary results showed the party had won enough seats to govern without a coalition. U.S. crude oil for June delivery was up 56 cents to $102.58 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In currency markets, the euro rose to $1.3714 from $1.3696 late Friday. The dollar fell to 101.37 yen from 101.54 yen.
