Japanese Market Is Tumbling

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,200 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with banking stocks tumbling amid fears that a U.S. banking debacle may follow last week's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, even though banking regulators have allayed all such fears.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 641.59 points or 2.31 percent at 27,191.37, after hitting a low of 27,104.75 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 5 percent and Toyota is declining more than 4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing 1.5 percent, Screen Holdings is declining almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is down almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are plunging almost 8 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is declining more than 7 percent.

The major exporters are mixed. Sony and Canon are losing more than 3 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is declining 2.5 percent and Panasonic slipping almost 4 percent. Among the other major losers, Resona Holdings is plummeting more than 9 percent, T&D Holdings is plunging more than 8 percent and Concordia Financial Group is sliding almost 8 percent, while Dai-ichi Life Holdings and Tokio Marine Holdings are losing more than 7 percent each. Chiba Bank, Fukuoka Financial Group and Mazda Motor are slipping almost 7 percent, while Credit Saison, Resonac Holdings and Mitsubishi Motors is declining more than 6 percent. Orix is down almost 6 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 133 yen-range on Tuesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks recovered after an early setback on Monday and ended on a mixed note, but shares from the technology space outperformed, spending much of the day's session in positive territory. Concerns over the fallout of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rendered the mood quite bearish at the start.

Among the major averages, the Dow, which plunged to 31,624.87 in early trades, ended with a loss of 90.50 points or 0.28 percent at 31,819.14. The S&P 500 ended 5.83 points or 0.15% lower at 3,855.76, recovering from 3,808.86. The Nasdaq ended higher by 49.96 points or 0.45 percent at 11,188.84, more than 200 points off the day's low of 10,982.80.

The major European markets moved sharply to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 2.56 percent, Germany's DAX dropped 2.86 percent and France's CAC 40 fell 2.85 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid worries that a U.S. banking debacle may follow last week's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures settled lower by $1.88 or 2.4 percent at $74.80 a barrel.