Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - Giving up the gains in the previous session, the Japanese market is significantly lower on Thursday, despite the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to well below the 40,300 level, with losses across most sectors as some traders booked profits after the recent strength in the markets.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 519.08 points or 1.27 percent to 40,243.65, after hitting a low of 40,213.21 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent, while Honda is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

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

Among the major exporters, Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are edging down 0.3 percent each, while Sony is losing 1.5 percent. Canon is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Tokyo Electric Power, Sumitomo Realty & Development and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are gaining more than 4 percent each, while Nippon Electric Glasis is adding almost 4 percent and Shiseido is up more than 3 percent. Mitsui Fudosan, Tokyo Tatemono and FUJIFILM are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nitori Holdings and TDK are declining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 151 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Wednesday but managed to end the day mostly higher thanks to a late-day surge. With the upward move, the Dow and the S&P 500 snapped three-day losing streaks.

The major averages all moved to the upside, with the Dow posting a standout gain. While the Dow jumped 477.75 points or 1.2 percent to 39,760.08, the S&P 500 advanced 44.91 points or 0.9 percent to 5,248.49 and the Nasdaq climbed 83.82 points or 0.5 percent to 16,399.52.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just above the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices dropped on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended lower by $0.27 or 0.33 percent at $81.35 a barrel.