Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower in post-holiday trading on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 47,550 level, with weakness in across most sectors led by exporters, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 554.94 points or 1.15 percent at 47,533.86, after hitting a low of 47,328.55 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Friday ahead of the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is down almost 1 percent and Advantest is slipping more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is slipping more than 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is declining more than 2 percent.

The major exporters are weak. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are declining almost 2 percent each, while Canon is down almost 1 percent and Sony is losing more than 2 percent.

Among the other major losers, Renesas Electronics, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Keyence are declining more than 4 percent each, while Ebara and Resona Holdings are losing almost 4 percent each. Mercari, Socionext, Nidec, Chiba Bank, Nitto Denko and Recruit Holdings are slipping more than 3 percent each, while Sharp, Daiichi Sankyo and Yokohama Financial are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Ryohin Keikaku is skyrocketing almost 13 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining is surging almost 6 percent, while Dowa Holdings and Yaskawa Electric are gaining more than 4 percent each. Mitsui Kinzoku, Lasertec and Mitsubishi Materials are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-152 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks continue to turn in a strong performance throughout the trading day on Monday after moving sharply higher early in the session. The major averages all showed strong moves to the upside partly offsetting the steep losses posted last Friday.

The major averages moved roughly sideways after the early surge, hovering near their best levels of the day. The Nasdaq spiked 490.18 points or 2.2 percent to 22,694.61, the S&P 500 shot up 102.21 points or 1.6 percent to 6,654.72 and the Dow jumped 587.98 points or 1.3 percent to 46,067.58.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices rebounded to post sharp gains on Monday as the likelihood of the U.S. getting involved in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war triggered fresh concerns of military escalation as well as new sanction threats on Russian oil exports. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.67 or 1.14 percent at $59.57 per barrel.