Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 3.7%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling 3.7 percent to below the 35,800 level, with weakness across all sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,328.31 points or 3.58 percent at 35,792.02, after hitting a low of 35,574.61 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is declining more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 3 percent and Toyota is declining almost 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is sliding 6.5 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are slipping 5.5 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 4 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 4 percent each.

The major exporters are lower. Panasonic is declining almost 4 percent, Canon is slipping more than 3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is sliding almost 5 percent and Sony is losing more than 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Renesas Electronics is plunging almost 8 percent, while MS&AD Insurance and Socionext are sliding more than 7 percent each. Fujikura, Disco and DeNA are slipping more than 6 percent each, while ENEOS Holdings, Yaskawa Electric and Fanuc are declining almost 6 percent each. Tokio Marine, Nomura Holdings, Sumco and Sumitomo Electric Industries are losing more than 5 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Friday extending the pullback seen over the two previous sessions. The major averages came under pressure early in the session and saw further downside as the day progressed.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a particularly steep loss, plunging 481.04 points or 2.7 percent to a six-month closing low of 17,322.99. The S&P 500 also tumbled 112.37 points or 2.0 percent to 5,580.94, while the Dow slumped 715.80 points or 1.7 percent to 41,583.90.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index declined by 0.9 and the German DAX Index slumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices fell Friday, but the most active futures contract still posted a weekly gain amid prospects of tighter supplies following the U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled at $69.36 a barrel, losing $0.56 or 0.8 percent. WTI crude futures gained 1.6 percent in the week.