Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is notably lower on Friday after opening in the green, snapping a four-session winning streak, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 39,300 level, with weakness in technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 202.04 points or 0.51 percent to 39,259.43, after touching a high of 39,543.93 and a low of 39,250.69 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.3 percent, while Honda is gaining almost 4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.5 percent each, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is losing almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 1 percent, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is declining almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.5 percent, while Panasonic is edging up 0.5 percent and Sony is surging more than 7 percent after reporting upbeat results.

Among other major losers, Resonac Holdings is plunging almost 7 percent, while Ricoh, Mitsubishi Materials, Japan Steel Works and Haseko are losing more than 3 percent each Japan Tobacco, IHI and Tokyu are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Toppan Holdings is skyrocketing almost 16 percent, Nissan Motor is surging more than 8 percent, Hitachi is gaining more than 4 percent and Tokyo Gas is adding almost 4 percent, while Taiheiyo Cement and Trend Micro are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-152 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday, extending the significant recovery from the sell-off seen early in Wednesday's session. The major averages all showed strong moves to the upside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the charge.

The major averages saw continued strength going into the close, ending the day near their high of the session. The Nasdaq surged 295.69 points or 1.5 percent to 19,945.64, the S&P 500 jumped 63.10 points or 1.0 percent to 6,115.07 and the Dow advanced 342.87 points or 0.8 percent at 44,711.43.

The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. The German DAX Index surged by 2.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.5 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Thursday as geopolitical concerns eased a bit amid hopes of an end to the Russia-Ukraine war after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to presidents of Russia and Ukraine over phone. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery closed down $0.08 at $71.39 a barrel.