Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Tuesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 31,100 level off recent 33-year highs, following the lack of cues from global markets overnight, as traders booked some profits after the recent rally which took the index to 33-year highs.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 143.81 points or 0.46 percent at 31,089.73, after hitting a low of 31,077.22 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.3 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.2 percent and Mizuho Financial is losing almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.4 percent.

The major exporters are mostly weak. Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent, while Canon and Sony are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Panasonic is gaining almost 1 percent. Among the other major losers, Mitsubishi Chemical is losing almost 4 percent, while Sapporo Holdings, Sumco and Teijin are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Kobe Steel is gaining more than 4 percent, Citizen Watch is adding more than 3 percent and Fujikura is up almost 3 percent.

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

The Wall Street was closed on account of Memorial Day holiday on Monday. The shares closed sharply higher on Friday.

The major European markets ended modestly lower with investors largely making cautious moves, focusing on U.S. debt ceiling talks. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 ended lower by 0.2% and 0.21%, respectively. The Switzerland market was closed for Pentecost.

Crude oil prices eked out modest gains on Monday after U.S. President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reached an agreement in principle to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a potentially disastrous default by the U.S. government. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July settled at $72.94 a barrel, up $0.27 or 0.4 percent.