Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Extending the losses in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is notably lower on Thursday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 36,900 level, with weakness in some index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 182.41 points or 0.49 percent to 36,865.20, after hitting a low of 36,359.23 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 1 percent, while Honda is gaining almost 2 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.5 percent. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is flat.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Panasonic is adding more than 1 percent. Sony is declining almost 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Renesas Electronics is losing almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Mitsubishi Logistics is gaining more than 5 percent and Hitachi Zosen is adding almost 5 percent, while GS Yuasa and Kao are up more than 4 percent each. Fujikura is rising more than 3 percent, while Osaka Gas, Taisei, Nippon Paper Industries, Toray Industries and Mitsubishi Chemical Group are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 143 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday following the sell-off seen during Tuesday's session. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually finished the day narrowly mixed. While the Dow inched up 38.04 points or 0.1 percent to 40,974.97, the S&P 500 dipped 8.86 points or 0.2 percent to 5,520.07 and the Nasdaq fell 52.00 points or 0.3 percent to 17,084.30.

Meanwhile, European stocks moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index slid by 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Wednesday amid rising concerns about the outlook for demand following reports that OPEC is planning to restore 180,000 barrels per day of voluntary production cuts beginning next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.14 or 1.6 percent at 69.20 a barrel, a nine-month low.