Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, giving up the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 falling below the 32,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by weakness across most sectors, led by exporters and index heavyweights. Traders also remain cautious ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy meeting later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 437.15 points or 1.33 percent to 32,454.01, after hitting a low of 32,342.18 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing are losing almost 2 percent each. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is declining more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining more than 1 percent each.

Among major exporters, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are declining almost 2 percent each, while Canon is slipping almost 4 percent and Panasonic is losing more than 2 percent. Among other major losers, Hino Motors plummeting more than 10 percent, Omron is plunging more than 8 percent, Renesas Electronics is losing more than 5 percent, Fujitsu is down almost 5 percent, M3 is slipping almost 4 percent and Seiko Epson is falling more than 3 percent, while Kansai Electric Power, Olympus and Tokyo Electric Power are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nisshin Seifun Group is gaining more than 4 percent, Fuji Electric is adding more than 3 percent and Dai-ichi Life Holdings is up almost 3 percent.

In economic news, overall consumer prices in the Tokyo region of Japan were up 3.2 percent on year in July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday. That exceeded expectations for an increase of 2.8 percent and was up from 3.1 percent in June. Core CPI was up 3.0 percent on year, topping forecasts for 2.9 percent and easing from 3.2 percent in the previous month.

The Bank of Japan will also wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Friday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at -0.10 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 139 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a significant downturn over the course of the trading day on Thursday after showing a strong move to the upside early in the session. The major averages pulled back well off their best levels of the day and into negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 77.17 points or 0.6 percent to 14,050.11 after surging as much as 1.7 percent in early trading. The S&P 500 also slid 29.34 points or 0.6 percent to 4,537.41, while the Dow slumped 237.40 points or 0.7 percent to 35,282.72, snapping a 13-day winning streak.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index spiked by 2.1 percent, the German DAX Index surged by 1.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday thanks to prospects of tighter supply in the market due to production cuts by OPEC and allies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September jumped $1.31 or 1.7 percent at $80.09 a barrel.