World shares mostly advance and Japan falls ahead of Lunar New Year holidays

By CHAN HO-HIM, AP Business Writer

HONG KONG (AP) — World shares mostly advanced on Monday and gold declined. Japanese stocks dipped and several stock markets in Asia were closed or trading for a half-day ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX was up 0.2% to 24,958.01. Britain’s FTSE gained 0.3% to 10,479.47, while the CAC 40 in Paris also rose 0.3% to 8,333.81.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.2% to 56,806.41, after the government reported that Japan’s economy grew more slowly than economists had expected in the latest October-December quarter, at an annualized 0.2%.