Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably lower on Monday, extending the slight losses in the previous session, following he broadly negative cues from European markets and lack of cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 39,600 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 249.00 points or 0.63 percent at 39,561.88, after hitting a low of 39,539.79 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is flat. Among automakers, Honda is down more than 1 percent and Toyota is losing almost 1 percent.

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

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

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic and Canon are losing almost 1 percent each, while Sony is edging down 0.5 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent. Among the other major losers, Yaskawa Electric is tumbling almost 8 percent, SMC is aliding more than 6 percent and Fanuc is losing more than 3 percent, while Nissan Motor, Renesas Electronics and Sumitomo Electric Industries are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Ryohin Keikaku is gaining more than 4 percent and BayCurrent is adding more than 3 percent, while Recruit Holdings, Disco and Nippon Express Holdings are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 144 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, the markets were closed for Independence Day on Friday after closing higher on Thursday.

The major European markets closed mostly lower on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 settled flat, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed lower by 0.61 percent and 0.75 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices slumped on Friday on easing geopolitical concerns in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $0.51 or 0.76 percent to finish at $66.49 per barrel.