Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 62,450 level, with weakness is index heavyweights and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 262.80 points or 0.42 percent at 62,430.36, after touching a high of 62,902.95 and a low of 62,094.34 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also edging down 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.2 percent and Toyota is also edging up 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining more than 3 percent and Screen Holdings is slipping more than 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is adding almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Canon and Panasonic are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among the other major losers, Sumco is declining more than 4 percent, while Kokusai Electric, Mercari, Resonac Holdings, Kioxia Holdings and IHI are losing more than 3 percent each. Renesas Electronics and Sumitomo Electric Industries are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Inpex is surging almost 5 percent, while Mitsubishi and JGC Holdings are advancing almost 4 percent each. Sumitomo is gaining more than 3 percent, while Taiyo Yuden, Takashimaya, Itochu, Mitsui & Co. and ENEOS Holdings are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 156 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw further downside over the course of the trading day on Friday following the sell-off seen during Thursday's session. The major averages all ended the day in negative territory, with the Dow showing a particularly steep drop.

The Dow slumped 652.82 points or 1.2 percent to 52,215.16, the S&P 500 also fell 39.75 or 0.5 percent to 7,623.68 and the Nasdaq slipped 53.52 points or 0.2 percent to 25,955.34.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices spiked on Friday amid rising fears of fresh U.S.-Iran conflict, as well as the ongoing Houthi-Saudi Arabia violence. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $3.54 or 3.56 percent at $103.01 per barrel.