Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - Extending the losses in the previous three sessions, the Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Thursday, following the mixed cues from global markets overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 33,300 level, with most sectors showing a mixed trend as traders reacted to a batch of domestic economic data.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 98.70 points or 0.30 percent to 33,222.52, after hitting a low of 33,171.04 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent, while Toyota is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 4 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among major exporters, Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

Among other major losers, Shiseido is losing almost 4 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, industrial production in Japan was up a seasonally adjusted 1.0 percent on month in October, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Thursday - exceeding forecasts for an increase of 0.8 percent and up from 0.5 percent in September.

On a yearly basis, industrial production rose 0.9 percent after sinking 4.4 percent in the previous month. According to the METI's forecast for industrial production, output is seen lower by 0.3 percent on month in November and higher by 3.2 percent in December.

METI also said the value of retail sales in Japan was up 4.2 percent on year in October, coming in at 13.648 trillion yen. That missed forecasts for an increase of 5.9 percent and was down from the upwardly revised 6.2 percent gain in September (originally 5.8 percent). On a monthly basis, retail sales slumped 1.6 percent after adding 0.4 percent in the previous month.

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

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after ending the previous session modestly higher. Despite the choppy trading on the day, the Dow inched up to its best closing level in over three months.

The major averages eventually ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Dow crept up 13.44 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 35,430.42, the Nasdaq slipped 23.27 points or 0.2 percent to 14,258.49 and the S&P 500 edged down 4.31 points or 0.1 percent to 4,550.58.

The major European markets also ended mixed on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged up by 0.2 percent and the German DAX Index jumped by 1.1 percent.

Crude oil prices showed another strong move to the upside on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous session ahead of a key OPEC meeting later today. West Texas Intermediate for January delivery jumped $1.45 or 1.9 percent to $77.86 a barrel.