Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 3%

(RTTNews) - Losing for the fourth straight session, the Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is falling 3 percent to below the 36,900 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 1,205.17 points or 3.16 percent to 36,874.53, after hitting a low of 36,824.48 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 2 percent and Toyota is declining almost 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is declining more than 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is sliding more than 7 percent and Screen Holdings is plunging almost 9 percent.

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

Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent, Panasonic is down more than 1 percent, Sony is declining almost 3 percent and Canon is slipping almost 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Lasertec is plummeting almost 9 percent, while Disco and Socionext are plunging almost 8 percent each. Sumco is sliding almost 7 percent, Renesas Electronics is losing more than 6 percent and Resonac Holdings is down almost 6 percent, while Rakuten and Shin-Etsu Chemical are declining more than 5 percent each. Ebara, TDK, Olympus and Fujikura are slipping almost 5 percent each.

Conversely, Inpex is gaining almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 153 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks came under pressure over the course of the trading session on Thursday after once again failing to sustain an early upward move. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ending the day in negative territory.

Reflecting weakness in the tech sector, the Nasdaq slid 81.87 points or 0.5 percent to 15,601.50, while the S&P 500 dipped 11.09 points or 0.2 percent to 5,011.12. The narrower Dow bucked the downtrend, inching up 22.07 points or 0.1 percent to 37,775.38.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.5 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices settled roughly flat on Thursday amid concerns about the outlook for global oil demand and on recent data showing a jump in crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled at $82.73 a barrel, up $0.04 from the previous close.