Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling to remain a tad above the 38,100 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks. Financial stocks were the only bright spot.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 463.34 points or 1.17 percent at 39,102.46, after hitting a low of 38,886.05 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 6 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling more than 9 percent, Tokyo Electron is losing more than 5 percent and Screen Holdings is declining 3.5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is adding almost 2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is up more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are losing more than 1 percent each, while Canon is down almost 1 percent. Sony is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the other major losers, Japan Steel Works is tumbling more than 9 percent, while Furukawa Electric and Fujikura are sliding more than 7 percent each. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is slipping almost 7 percent and Disco is declining more than 6 percent, while Fuji Electric and Socionext are down almost 6 percent each. Resonac Holdings and Hitachi are losing more than 4 percent each, while NTT Data Group is falling almost 5 percent, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Sumitomo Electric Industries are slipping more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, Hitachi Construction Machinery is surging almost 7 percent, while Keisei Electric Railway and Kubota are advancing more than 3 percent each. Nitori Holdings and Mitsui Fudosan are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 155 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks closed mostly lower on Monday, with those in the technology sector recording more pronounced losses, due to sustained selling pressure right through the day's trading session.

Among the major averages, the Dow closed up 289.33 points or 0.65 percent, at 44,713.58. The S&P 500 ended down 88.96 points or 1.46 percent, at 6,012.28, while the Nasdaq settled with a loss of 612.47 points or 3.07 percent, at 19,341.83.

The major European markets were mixed on the day. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed down 0.53 percent and 0.27 percent, respectively. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.02 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid concerns about tariff threats and uncertainty about U.S. trade policy. Also, weak manufacturing data from China has raised concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March closed down $1.49 or 2 percent at $73.17 a barrel.