Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading notably lower on Thursday, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to near the 39,600 level, with weakness in exporter stocks and a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 212.48 points or 0.53 percent to 39,608.80, after hitting a low of 39,547.26 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.5 percent, while Honda is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.5 percent, while Tokyo Electron is losing more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is declining almost 1 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Sony is losing almost 3 percent, Canon is declining more than 2 percent, Panasonic is slipping more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is down almost 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, BayCurrent is surging almost 5 percent, Rakuten Group is gaining more than 4 percent and Disco is adding almost 4 percent.

Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power and Nikon are losing more than 3 percent each, while Sharp and Konica Minolta are slipping almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 145 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Wednesday after ending Tuesday's choppy trading session little changed. The major averages gave back ground after an early advance but moved back to the upside as the day progressed, closing firmly in positive territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 192.87 points or 0.9 percent to a new record closing high of 20,611.34, the S&P 500 climbed 37.74 points or 0.6 percent to 6,263.26 and the Dow rose 217.54 points or 0.5 percent to 44,458.30.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both jumped by 1.4 percent.

Crude oil prices inched higher on Wednesday, as Saudi projections for increased demand were offset by a jump in U.S. oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery ticked higher by $0.05 to settle at $68.38 per barrel.