Asian stock markets were mostly down Thursday as uncertain traders watched for progress in raising the U.S. government debt limit and talks on Europe's debt crisis. Oil prices hovered above $98 a barrel as investors watched the U.S. debt limit standoff between the White House and lawmakers. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.1 percent at 9,993.63 points while China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6 percent to 2,777.23. Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.5 percent to 21,884.3. Trading was lackluster amid concern over talks in Washington over raising the U.S. debt limit and a European Union meeting Thursday on the region's debt crisis, said Jackson Wong, vice president of Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong. "Without either of these two major overhangs being resolved, I don't think markets will go anywhere," Wong said. Seoul's Kospi was off 0.7 percent at 2,139.41. Taipei and Singapore also declined, while Sydney was up. Asian concern over the U.S. debt talks was in contrast to Western markets that rallied Wednesday after reports of progress in Washington in raising the government's $14.3 trillion debt limit to avoid a default. China's stocks also were hurt by a report Thursday that Chinese manufacturing activity fell to a 28-month low in July. HSBC Corp.'s manufacturing index fell to 47.2 from June's 50.1 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 show activity declining. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares, France's CAC-40 and Germany's DAX all ended higher Wednesday. In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.1 percent while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index was flat.

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