Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - Giving up the gains in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is falling below the 38,700 level, with losses in exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 111.62 points or 0.29 percent to 38,695.76, after hitting a low of 38,519.94 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are declining more than 3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.5 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 2 percent, Canon is edging up 0.1 percent and Panasonic is adding almost 1 percent, while Sony is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among other major losers, Sumco is losing almost 4 percent, while Japan Exchange and Shiseido are declining more than 3 percent each. Keio is down almost 3 percent. Furukawa Electric is down almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power is soaring more than 8 percent, Inpex is surging more than 5 percent, Idemitsu Kosan is gaining more than 4 percent and Casio Computer is up more than 3 percent, while DeNA, Mitsubishi and ENEOS Holdings are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 148 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction in early trading on Thursday but moved mostly lower over the course of the session. The major averages all moved to the downside on the day, although selling pressure remained somewhat subdued.

The major averages climbed well off their worst levels going into the close but remained in negative territory. The Dow slid 137.66 points or 0.4 percent to 39,905.66, the Nasdaq fell 49.24 points or 0.3 percent to 16,128.53 and the S&P 500 dipped 14.83 points or 0.3 percent to 5,150.48.

Meanwhile, the major European markets finished the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil futures rose sharply on Thursday, extending gains from the previous day as the International Energy Agency (IEA) upwardly raised its global demand growth forecast. West Texas International Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.54 or 1.9 percent at $81.26 a barrel.