Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly lower on Monday, giving up the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 staying above the 27,400 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets on Friday, dragged by technology stocks as traders remain cautious ahead of Bank of Japan governor nominee Kazuo Ueda's appearance before the upper house. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 40.24 or 0.15 percent at 27,413.24, after hitting a low of 27,292.74 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 1 percent, while Toyota is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is edging up 0.2 percent, while Advantest is losing more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is slipping 1.5 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Canon and Panasonic are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is adding 1.5 percent and Sony is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Konami Group is losing almost 4 percent and Ajinomoto is down almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Kobe Steel is gaining almost 4 percent, while Nikon and Mitsubishi Motors are adding more than 3 percent each. Toppan, Tokai Carbon, JFE Holdings, Obayashi, Ebara, Nippon Steel and Mitsui Chemicals are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the 136 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower in early trading on Friday and remained firmly negative throughout the session. With the steep drop on the day, the Dow fell to a two-month closing low, while the S&P 500 dropped to its lowest closing level in over a month.

The major averages all posted steep losses on the day. The Dow slumped 336.99 points or 1.0 percent to 32,816.92, the Nasdaq plunged 195.46 points or 1.7 percent to 11,394.94 and the S&P 500 tumbled 42.28 points or 1.1 percent to 3,970.04.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index plunged by 1.7 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures showed a big turnaround over the course of the trading day on Friday after coming under pressure early in the session. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery jumped $0.93 or 1.2 percent to $76.32 after falling as low as $74.09 a barrel in early trading.