Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading notably lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 37,100 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 240.49 points or 0.64 percent to 37,058.49, after hitting a low of 36,873.61 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably lower on Wednesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are declining almost 3 percent each, while Screen Holdings is declining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.4 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 1 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Panasonic and Canon are losing almost 1 percent each.

Among other major losers, Keisei Electric Railway is plunging more than 9 percent and Konica Minolta is declining more than 3 percent, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yaskawa Electric, Nikon, Kubota and NEXON are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Furukawa Electric is surging almost 8 percent, Socionext is gaining almost 5 percent and Daiichi Sankyo is up more than 3 percent, while NEC and Yamaha are adding 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 more substantial move to the downside during trading on Wednesday following a moderate pullback in the previous session. The major averages rebounded from an initial decline but once again slumped into negative territory as the day progressed.

The major averages ended the day off their worst levels but still sharply lower. The Dow plunged 816.80 points or 1.9 percent to 41,860.44, the S&P 500 slumped 95.85 points or 1.6 percent to 5,844.61 and the Nasdaq tumbled 270.07 points or 1.4 percent to 18,872.64.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell under pressure Wednesday after a report released by the Energy Information Administration showed U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly increased last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery slid $0.46 to 0.7 percent to $61.57 a barrel.