Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 staying above the 25,600 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with materials, technology and energy stocks leading the declines, even as traders continue to be worried about the economic impact of aggressive monetary policy tightening. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 332.65 points or 1.28 percent at 25,630.35, after hitting a low of 25,586.12 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging up 0.5 percent each.

In the tech space, Advantest is slipping more than 4 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are declining almost 6 percent each. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are lower, with Sony, Canon and Panasonic losing more than 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is down almost 2 percent. Among the other major losers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is plummeting almost 9 percent, Inpex is plunging almost 8 percent, IHI is sliding more than 7 percent and Kawasaki Heavy Industries is slipping almost 7 percent, while JGC Holdings and Marubeni are declining almost 6 percent each. Idemitsu Kosan is losing more than 5 percent, while Tokai Carbon, Mitsui E&S Holdings, Hitachi Zosen and Sumco are down almost 5 percent each. Alps Alpine and Komatsu are slipping more than 4 percent each. Conversely, there are no major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 134 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw substantial volatility over the course of the session on Friday following the sell-off seen during trading on Thursday. The major averages showed wild swings as the day progressed before finishing the session mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 152.25 points or 1.4 percent to 10,798.35 and the S&P 500 crept up 8.07 points or 0.2 percent to 3,674.84, the narrower Dow edged down 38.29 points or 0.1 percent to 29,888.78, closing at its lowest level since December of 2020.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the German DAX Index advanced by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday on mounting fears about a possible global economic recession following severe tightening of policies by several central banks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended lower by $8.03 or 6.8 percent at $109.56 a barrel.