Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, draged by weakness in some index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 117.10 points or 0.42 percent to 27,489.36, after hitting a low of 27,424.69 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is flat. Among automakers, Toyota is flat and Honda is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are losing more than 2 percent each, while Advantest is down 1.5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.1 percent. Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent, while Panasonic and Canon are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each. Sony is losing almost 1 percent.

There are no other major losers.

Conversely, Pacific Metals is surging almost 6 percent, Teijin is gaining more than 5 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining is adding 4.5 percent, while Konami Group, AGC, Konica Minolta amd Toray Industries are up more than 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 131 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Wednesday, giving back ground following the rally seen in the previous session. The major averages all moved to the downside on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the pullback.

The major averages finished the session near their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq tumbled 203.27 points or 1.7 percent to 11,910.52, the S&P 500 slumped 46.14 points or 1.1 percent to 4,117.86 and the Dow slid 207.68 points or 0.6 percent to 33,939.01.

Meanwhile, the major European markets finished the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index edged down 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index climbed 0.6 percent. Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday, extending gains to a third straight session amid hopes of higher demand from China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $1.33 or 1.7 percent at $78.47 a barrel.