Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - Reversing the gains in the previous session, the Japanese market is sharply lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to stay a tad above the 38,100 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 469.55 points or 1.22 percent to 38,103.05, after hitting a low of 38,080.26 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Thursday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is down almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing almost 4 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are down almost 3 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is edging down 0.4 percent, Canon is losing 1.5 percent, Sony is down more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Nintendo plunging almost 7 percent, Tokyo Tatemono is sliding almost 6 percent, DeNA is slipping almost 5 percent and T&D Holdings is losing almost 4 percent, while Dai-ichi Life and TDK Holdings are declining more than 3 percent each. Konami Group, Takashimaya, Tokio Marine and BANDAI NAMCO are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Hino Motors is surging almost 8 percent, OKUMA is gaining more than 5 percent, Shiseido is adding more than 3 percent and Omron is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 155 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Thursday following the substantial rally seen during Wednesday's session. The major averages fluctuated over the course of the trading day before eventually closing in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day more firmly in the red amid a slump by shares of Apple (AAPL), sliding 172.94 points or 0.9 percent to 19,338.29. The Dow and the S&P 500 posted more modest losses. The Dow dipped 68.42 points or 0.2 percent to 43,153.13 and the S&P 500 slipped 12.57 points or 0.2 percent to 5,937.34.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index surged by 2.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.1 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Thursday after Israel and Hamas agreed to implement a ceasefire agreement that was drafted and approved by the UN Security Council. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled lower by $1.36 or 1.7 percent at $78.68 a barrel.