Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly lower in choppy trading on Wednesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 staying above the 32,300 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with weakness exporters and financial stocks partially offset by gains in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 29.36 or 0.09 percent at 32,347.93, after hitting a low of 32,220.05 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are losing more than 1 percent each.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining 1.5 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 1 percent and Advantest is advancing more than 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing more than 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Sony are edging up 0.2 percent each, while Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are losing more than 1 percent each.

Among the other major losers, Nikon is plummeting more than 15 percent, Daikin Industries is plunging more than 8 percent, NTT Data is sliding almost 6 percent, Kirin Holdings is declining more than 5 percent and Ricoh is down almost 5 percent, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mazda Motor are slipping more than 4 percent each. Trend Micro is losing almost 4 percent, while Olympus and Yamaha Motor are down more than 3 percent each. Marui Group is losing almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Kobe Steel is skyrocketing more than 11 percent and Yokogawa Electric is soaring almost 10 percent, while BANDAI NAMCO and Resonac Holdings are surging almost 9 percent each. Sumitomo Osaka Cement is gaining more than 7 percent, Tokyu is adding almost 7 percent and Isetan Mitsukoshi is up more than 6 percent, while Amada and Mitsui Mining & Smelting are advancing more than 4 percent each. J. Front Retailing and Takashimaya are rising almost 4 percent, while Sumitomo Pharma and Shiseido are up more than 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 143 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks recovered gradually on Tuesday after a weak start and a subsequent sharp fall, but still ended the day's session in negative territory.

The major averages all ended notably lower, but well off the session's lows. The Dow ended the day with a loss of 158.64 points or 0.45 percent at 35,314.49, the S&P 500 settled with a loss of 19.06 points or 0.42 percent at 4,499.38, and the Nasdaq ended with a loss of 110.07 points or 0.79 percent at 13,884.32.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.36 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.1 percent and 0.69 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday following an upgrade to this year's GDP growth projections in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $0.98 at $82.92 a barrel.