Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Tuesday, giving some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 33,200 level, despite the slightly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with a mixed trend in the market as traders remain cautious ahead of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy decision due on Friday.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 377.28 points or 1.13 percent at 33,155.81, after hitting a low of 33,133.59 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday ahead of the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 3 percent and Toyota is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are plunging more than 5 percent each, while Screen Holdings is declining more than 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding more than 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is up almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mixed. Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Sony is losing almost 2 percent and Panasonic is down almost 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Renesas Electronics is plunging almost 5 percent, while Mitsui E&S and Hoya are losing more than 3 percent. Keisei Electric Railway, CyberAgent and Recruit Holdings are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Mazda Motor is gaining almost 5 percent and Nippon Yusen K.K. is adding more than 4 percent, while Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are advancing more than 3 percent each. Yokohama Rubber, Sompo Holdings and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha are up almost 3 percent each.

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

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Monday following the volatility seen to close out the previous week. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the session slightly higher. While the S&P 500 edged up 3.21 points or 0.1 percent to 4,453.53, the Dow inched up 6.06 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 34,624.30 and the Nasdaq crept up 1.90 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 13,710.24.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index plunged by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index dove by 1.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Monday, rising for a third straight session on global supply issues and a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October rose $0.71 or 0.8 percent at $91.48 a barrel, the highest settlement this year.