Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 3.4%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading sharply lower on Thursday, reversing the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is plunging more than 3 percent to below the 34,600 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,140.73 points or 3.19 percent to 34,585.14, after hitting a low of 34,102.00 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing 3.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 4 percent and Honda is down more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 4 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining more than 5 percent and Screen Holdings is down 3.5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 7 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 6 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is losing more than 6 percent and Canon is declining almost 5 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are down more than 4 percent each.

Among other major losers, Resona Holdings and Sumitomo Pharma are plunging almost 10 percent each, while Nomura Holdings and Mazda Motor are sliding almost 8 percent each. Concordia Financial and Chiba Bank are slipping more than 7 percent each, while Taiyo Yuden, TDK and Furukawa Electric are declining almost 7 percent each. Fujikura, Dai-ichi Life and Fukuoka Financial are losing more than 6 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 148 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks once again recovered from an early slump to end Wednesday's trading mostly higher, adding to the gains posted in the previous session. The major averages climbed well off their lows to end the day firmly in positive territory.

The major averages gave back ground in early afternoon trading but moved back to the upside going into the close. The Nasdaq advanced 151.16 points or 0.9 percent to 7,601.05, the S&P 500 climbed 37.90 points or 0.7 percent to 5,670.97 and the Dow rose 235.36 points or 0.6 percent to 42,225.32.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid by 0.7 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices ticked higher again on Wednesday, despite data showing an unexpected increase by U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery rose $0.51 or 0.7 percent to $71.71 a barrel.