Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - Giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, the Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Thursday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 33,200 level, with losses across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 521.54 points or 1.55 percent to 33,154.40, after hitting a low of 33,128.57 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is declining almost 3 percent and Honda is declining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are edging down 0.5 percent each, while Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent. Canon is flat.

Among other major losers, Renesas Electronics is losing 4.5 percent and Terumo is declining more than 3 percent, while Eisai, Chugai Pharmaceutical, Konica Minolta, Toyota Tsusho and Nissan Motor are all down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power is gaining almost 4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 142 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks recovered from initial weakness and moved mostly higher over the course of morning trading on Wednesday but came under significant pressure in the latter part of the session. The major averages moved sharply lower in late-day trading, partly offsetting recent strength.

The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the session at their worst levels of the day. The Dow slumped 475.92 points or 1.3 percent to 37,082.00, the Nasdaq dove 225.28 points or 1.5 percent to 14,777.93 and the S&P 500 tumbled 70.02 points or 1.5 percent to 4,698.35.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1, the French CAC 40 Index crept up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Wednesday on concerns about trade disruptions in the Middle East after attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $0.28 or 0.4 percent at $74.22 a barrel.