Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 28,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets on Friday, with weakness across most sectors, led by technology stocks, which tracked their peers on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 179.81 or 0.62 percent at 28,750.52, after hitting a low of 28,586.36 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.3 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 1 percent, Tokyo Electron declining more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is down more than 1 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are flat, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.5 percent.

The major exporters are mixed, with Panasonic, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent. Among the other major gainers, Nexon is losing almost 4 percent and CyberAgent is down almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Inpex is gaining almost 4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 137 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move back to the downside during trading on Friday after ending Thursday's choppy session modestly higher. The major averages came under pressure early in the session and remained firmly negative throughout the day.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels in the final hour of trading but remained firmly negative. The Dow slid 292.30 points or 0.9 percent to 33,706.74, the Nasdaq plunged 260.12 points or 2 percent to 12,705.22 and the S&P 500 tumbled 55.26 points or 1.3 percent to 4,228.48.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. The German DAX Index slumped by 1.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.9 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the downtrend and inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices settled modestly higher on Friday but posted a weekly loss due to concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid fears of a possible recession in Europe. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September rose $0.27 or 0.3 percent at $90.77 a barrel.