Global investors take a breather over ceasefire talks

Tokyo: World shares were mixed on Tuesday after talks between Russia and Ukraine aimed at ending the war just yielded an agreement to meet again.

European markets opened mostly lower, while Asian shares and US futures were mostly higher. Oil prices rose. A 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks was threatening Ukraine's capital Kyiv in the sixth day of the war as the Kremlin grew increasingly isolated. A first, five-hour session of talks ended with an agreement to another meeting in coming days, though embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he believed stepped-up shelling by Russian troops was designed to force him into concessions. Russia is a major energy producer and surging oil prices and increasing financial pressure from the US and allies on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine were adding to uncertainty about the global economic outlook.

France's CAC 40 lost 0.6% to 6,622.35. Germany's DAX shed 0.7% to 14,357.77, while Britain's FTSE 100 edged 0.1% higher, to 7,467.27. On Wall Street, the futures for both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials were 0.2% higher.

"While the ceasefire talks at the Belarus-Ukraine border ended, the military fires certainly have not ended by any means alongside sanctions being raised further," Tan Boon Heng at Mizuho Bank in Singapore said in a commentary. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.2% to finish at 26,844.72.