Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Tuesday, adding to the slight losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling to stay a tad above the 38,400 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 549.66 points or 1.41 percent at 38,404.94, after hitting a low of 38,200.82 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent, while Toyota is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, Screen Holdings is declining 1.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is slipping more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing more than 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 2 percent, Panasonic is declining more than 1 percent and Sony is down almost 1 percent, while Canon is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the other major losers, M3 is losing more than 4 percent and Ebara is slipping almost 4 percent, while Ryohin Keikaku and Toto are slipping more than 3 percent each. Minebea Mitsumi, Mercari, Tokyo Tatemono, Socionext, Mitsubishi Electric, Renesas Electronics and Keisei Electric Railway are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

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

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday following recent strength on Wall Street. While the Dow showed a notable pullback, the tech-heavy Nasdaq managed to end the day in positive territory.

The Dow slid 344.31 points or 0.8 percent to 42,931.60 and the S&P 500 dipped 10.69 points or 0.2 percent to 5,853.98, but the Nasdaq rose 50.45 points or 0.3 percent to 18,540.01.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both slumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Monday on possible disruptions in supplies due to escalating tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended up by $1.34 or 1.94 percent at $70.56 a barrel.