Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Tuesday, giving up all the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,600 level, following the mildly negative cues from global markets overnight, with weakness in technology, financial and energy-linked shares.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 413.24 points or 1.48 percent at 27,580.11, after hitting a low of 27,561.02 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is declining almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are declining more than 1 percent each. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 2 percent each.

The major exporters are lower, with Mitsubishi Electric losing almost 3 percent, Canon declining almost 2 percent and Panasonic down more than 1 percent, while Sony is flat. Among the other major losers, Hino Motors is plunging more than 9 percent, while Isetan Mitsukoshi and Daiichi Sankyo are slipping almost 5 percent. Toto and Japan Steel Works are losing more than 4 percent, while Chugai Pharmaceutical, Otsuka Holdings, Komatsu and Kubota are down almost 4 percent. Denso, Aozora Bank, Sumitomo Pharma, Mitsui & Co., Yaskawa Electric and Omron are declining more than 3 percent.

Conversely, TDK is soaring more than 12 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 130 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a sluggish performance on Monday, the first trading session of August, and ended slightly weak after recording their best month in the Year in July. Fairly encouraging corporate earnings updates helped limit market's downside.

The major averages all ended in negative territory despite seeing a brief spell in positive territory. The Dow ended with a loss of 46.73 points or 0.14 percent at 32,798.40, after moving between 32,640.79 and 32,972.03. The S&P 500 ended lower by 11.66 points or 0.28 percent at 4,118.63, while the Nasdaq settled at 12,368.98, down 21.71 points or 0.18 percent from the previous close.

The major European markets all also showed moves to the downide on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.13 percent down, France's CAC 40 ended lower by 0.18 percent and Germany's DAX edged down 0.03 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid concerns about outlook for energy demand and ahead of this week's OPEC+ meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended lower by $4.73 or 4.8 percent at $93.89 a barrel.