Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 2%

(RTTNews) - Adding to the losses in the previous four sessions, the Japanese share market is tumbling on Wednesday, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight. The Nikkei 225 fell below the 30,700 mark to four-month lows, with sharp losses across most sectors, led by index heavyweights, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 613.35 or 1.96 percent at 30,624.59, after hitting a low of 30,581.61 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is declining almost 5 percent and Toyota is slipping almost 4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest plunging more than 5 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are losing more than 3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing almost 4 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down more than 3 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is plunging almost 5 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is sliding almost 5 percent and Sony is losing almost 2 percent, while Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are declining more than 2 percent each.

Among other major losers, Mercari is plunging more than 6 percent, while Mercari, Mitsubishi Motors and JTEKT are sliding almost 6 percent each. Mazda Motor, Nissan Motor and Credit Saison are slipping more than 5 percent, while Sumitomo Corp., Marubeni, NEC and Subaru are losing almost 5 percent each. Fujikura is declining more than 4 percent.

Conversely, M3 is gaining almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 149 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday with traders continuing to express concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The major averages all showed substantial moves to the downside after ending Monday's trading mixed.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but still posted steep losses. The Dow slumped 430.97 points or 1.3 percent to 33,002.38, the Nasdaq plunged 248.31 points or 1.9 percent to 13,059.47 and the S&P 500 tumbled 58.94 points or 1.4 percent to 4,229.45.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index slumped by 1.0 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Tuesday on optimism that OPEC+ won't change its production policy at the committee's meeting later today. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November added $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $89.23 a barrel.