Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 losing 600 points to fall below the 26,400 level, following the broadly negative cues from the global markets overnight, with weakness across most sectors amid the strong prospects the US Fed aggressively raising interest rates at its meeting on Wednesday to combat persistent inflation.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 603.56 points or 2.24 percent at 26,383.88, after hitting a low of 26,357.90 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down 1.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is flat, while Toyota is losing almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, Screen Holdings is declining more than 2 percent each and Tokyo Electron is down more than 3 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.5 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is flat.

The major exporters are higher, with Sony declining more than 3 percent and Panasonic edging down 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are losing more than 1 percent each. Among the other major losers, Nissan Chemical is plunging more than 7 percent, NEXON is sliding almost 6 percent and Daiichi Sankyo is declining more than 5 percent, while JGC Holdings and Isetan Mitsukoshi are slipping more than 4 percent each. ANA Holdings, Shiseido, Trend Micro, Sumitomo Realty & Development and Takashimaya are losing almost 4 percent each, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Rakuten Group, Kubota, Nikon and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are down more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Chiba Bank is losing almost 3 percent.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Monday, extending the sell-off seen to close out the previous week. With the steep drop on the day, the major U.S. stock indexes ended the session at their lowest closing levels in over a year.

The Dow tumbled 876.05 points or 2.8 percent to 30,516.74, the Nasdaq plummeted 530.80 points or 4.7 percent to 10,809.23 and the S&P 500 plunged 151.23 points or 3.7 percent to 3,749.63.

The major European markets also showed notable moves to the downside. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dove by 1.5 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index plunged 2.4 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures rebounded from early losses and settled modestly higher on Monday as concerns about global supplies outweighed demand worries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $0.26 or 0.2 percent at $120.93 a barrel.