Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly lower on Tuesday after opening in the green, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 43,500 level, with weakness in index heavyweights and financial stocks partially offset by gains in automakers and exporters.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 221.80 points or 0.51 percent at 43,492.51, after touching a high of 43,876.42 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.5 percent and Toyota is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining more than 3 percent, while Advantest is edging down 0.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is losing almost 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 3 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing more than 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 2 percent and Panasonic is edging up 0.1 percent. Canon and Sony are flat.

Among the other major losers, IHI and Fujikura are losing more than 4 percent each, while Resona Holdings is down almost 4 percent. Nintendo, Japan Steel Works, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and BayCurrent are declining more than 3 percent each, while Konami Group, Concordia Financial, Furukawa Electric, Ebara and BANDAI NAMCO are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Daiichi Sankyo is gaining more than 4 percent, while Tokyo Tatemono and Credit Saison are adding more than 3 percent each. In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 147 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Monday following back-to-back positive weeks. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing little changed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 6.80 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 21,629.77, the S&P 500 edged down 0.65 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,449.15 and the Dow slipped 34.30 points or 0.1 percent to 44,911.82.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index declined by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed on Monday as investors focused their attention on the meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents amid rising geopolitical tensions surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was up $0.60 or 0.96 percent at $63.40 per barrel.