Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 42,300 level, with weakness across most sectors led by tumbling technology stocks. Automakers were the only bright spot.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 446.80 points or 1.05 percent at 42,271.67, after hitting a low of 42,210.81 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing 5.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining 1.5 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling more than 8 percent, Tokyo Electron is losing more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is declining more than 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.2 percent and Mizuho Financial is losing more than 1 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is flat.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic is losing more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are down almost 1 percent. Canon is flat. Among the other major losers, Disco is tumbling more than 7 percent, Socionext is slipping almost 6 percent, Furukawa Electric is losing more than 5 percent and Sumitomo Electric Industries is declining more than 3 percent, while Sumco and Lasertec are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Olympus is gaining more than 4 percent, while M3 and Eisai are adding almost 4 percent each. Oriental Land, Asahi Group and Mazda Motor are advancing more than 3 percent each, while Otsuka Holdings, Sumitomo Pharma, Keio and Keisei Electric Railway are up almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to contract in August, albeit at a slower rate, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 49.7. That's up from 48.9 in July, although it remains beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 147 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved back to the downside during trading on Friday after trending higher over the past few sessions. The major averages all moved lower on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq posting a particularly steep loss.

The major averages ended the day off their lows of the session but still in negative territory. The Nasdaq slumped 249.61 points or 1.2 percent to 21,455.55, the S&P 500 slid 41.60 points or 0.6 percent to 6,460.26 and the Dow dipped 92.02 points or 0.2 percent to 45,544.88.

The major European markets also all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on concerns on overproduction concerns as OPEC recently agreed to increase crude production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.60 or 0.93 percent at $64.00 per barrel.