Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,600 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with weakness in exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 86.30 or 0.31 percent at 27,564.54, after hitting a low of 27,511.68 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is down almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 1 percent each. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is flat and Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly weak, with Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric losing almost 1 percent each, while Sony is edging down 0.2 percent. Canon is edging up 0.2 percent. Among the other major losers, Subaru, Keisei Electric Railway, Maruha Nichiro, Odakyu Electric Railway and Denso are losing more than 2 percent each.

Conversely, NEXON is soaring almost 9 percent, JGC Holdings is gaining 4.5 percent, Toppan is adding more than 3 percent and Ebara is up 2.5 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 140 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks regained ground in morning trading on Friday but once again came under pressure over the course of the trading day after trending lower in recent sessions. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and into negative territory.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained sharply lower. The Dow tumbled 337.98 points or 1.1 percent to 31,318.44. the Nasdaq tumbled 154.26 points or 1.3 percent to 11,630.87 and the S&P 500 clumped 42.59 points or 1.1 percent to 3,924.26.

Meanwhile, the major European markets showed substantial moves to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index soared by 3.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 2.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped 1.9 percent.

Crude oil prices ticked higher Friday on rising prospects for a reduction in output from OPEC and allies. But prices were down for the week amid worries about outlook for energy demand due to concerns about slowing global growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September rose $0.26 or 0.3 percent at $86.87 a barrel; they were down 6.7 percent in the week.