Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 600 Points

(RTTNews) - Dragged by the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, Japanese shares are sharply lower on Thursday after gaining for the two straight sessions. The Nikkei 225 Index is falling below the 30,700 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 606.32 points or 1.94 percent to 30,663.60, after hitting a low of 30,658.96 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 4 percent and uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 2 percent and Honda is down more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 6 percent, Tokyo Electron is down more than 4 percent and Screen Holdings is declining almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are edging down 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while Sony is losing almost 2 percent and Panasonic is declining almost 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Sumco and Renesas Electronics are losing almost 4 percent each, while Mitsui Fudosan, Mercari and Nidec are down more than 3 percent each. Hoya, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fujikura, Dentsu Group and Nikon are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 2.1 percent on year in September, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - unchanged from the August reading and topping expectations for an increase of 2.0 percent. On a monthly basis, producer prices rose 0.1 percent - unchanged an in line with forecasts. Excluding international transportation, producer prices rose 0.2 percent on month and 2.3 percent on year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks managed to finish Tuesday's session mostly higher but showed a substantial move back to the downside during trading on Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the pullback, plunging to a five-month closing low.

The Nasdaq tumbled 318.65 points or 2.4 percent to 12,821.22, reflecting its worst day since February. The S&P 500 also slumped 60.91 points or 1.4 percent to 4,186.77, its lowest closing level in almost five months, while the narrower Dow fell 105.45 points or 0.3 percent to 33,035.93.

Meanwhile, the major European markets showed modest moves to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak amid likely disruptions in supply due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $1.65 or 1.97 percent at $85.39 a barrel.