Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower in choppy trading on Monday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,300 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets on Friday, as weakness across most sectors, partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 238.35 or 0.88 percent at 27,288.77, after hitting a low of 27,165.78 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.

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

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is edging down 0.4 percent, while Advantest and Tokyo Electron are losing more than 1 percent each. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is adding almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is advancing almost 2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower, with Canon losing more than 1 percent, Panasonic declining almost 2 percent, Sony down almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the other major losers, Mazda is losing almost 2 percent.

Conversely, Hitachi Zosen is gaining almost 4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the 136 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a significant move to the downside during trading on Friday, extending the sharp pullback seen over the two preceding sessions. With the continued weakness, the major averages fell to their lowest closing levels in over a month.

The major averages regained some ground going into the close but remained firmly negative. The Dow slid 281.76 points or 0.9 percent to 32,920.46, the Nasdaq slumped 105.11 points or 1.0 percent to 10,705.41 and the S&P 500 tumbled 43.39 points or 1.1 percent to 3,852.36.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 1.1 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $1.82 or 2.4 percent at $74.29 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.4 percent in the week.