Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Wednesday after opening in the green, snapping a four-session winning streak, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 32,200 level and off the recent 33-year highs, despite the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, with traders continuing to booking profits after the recent rally in the markets.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 344.51 or 1.06 percent at 32,162.27, after hitting a low of 31,992.58 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is also down almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing almost 3 percent, while Advantest and Tokyo Electron are declining more than 3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are losing 1.5 percent each, while Canon is down almost 1 percent and Panasonic is declining more than 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Renesas Electronics is losing almost 5 percent and Kobe Steel is declining more than 3 percent, while Shionogi & Co., Toray Industries, Rakuten Group and Daikin Industries are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Tokuyama is surging more than 5 percent, while Sharp and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 139 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, extending the lackluster performance seen in the previous session. The major averages once again spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the day in positive territory. The Nasdaq climbed 46.99 points or 0.4 percent to 13,276.42, the S&P 500 rose 10.06 points or 0.2 percent to 4,283.85 and the Dow inched up 10.42 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 33,573.28.

The major European markets also moved modestly higher on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index edged up by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to economic slowdown and interest rate hikes. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July fell $0.41 or 0.6 percent at $71.74 a barrel.