Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 28,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by losses in financial stocks amid renewed concerns about turmoil in the banking sector after First Republic reported a loss of more than $100 billion in deposits in the first quarter.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 130.71 or 0.46 percent at 28,489.36, after hitting a low of 28,397.01 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.4 percent and Toyota is flat.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing more than 1 percent while Advantest and Tokyo Electron are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 2 percent, Mizuho Financial is declining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are losing more than 1 percent each, while Panasonic is edging down 0.5 percent. Canon is edging up 0.3 percent.

There are no other major losers.

Conversely, Sumitomo Pharma is gaining almost 4 percent, while Taisei and Obayashi are adding more than 3 percent each. Kajima is up almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 133 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after showing a lack of direction for two straight sessions. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside after ending Monday's trading narrowly mixed.

The major averages finished the day just off their lows of the session. The Dow slumped 344.57 points or 1.0 percent to 33,530.83, the Nasdaq plunged 238.05 points or 2.0 percent to 11,799.16 and the S&P 500 tumbled 65.41 points or 1.6 percent to 4,071.63.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday amid concerns over the outlook for energy demand due to fears of a global economic slowdown, while the dollar's rise weighed as well. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $1.69 or 2.2 percent to $77.07 per barrel.