Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - Reversing the gains in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is sharply lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 50,500 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 792.77 points or 1.55 percent to 50,489.06, after hitting a low of 50,246.60 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Thursday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is declining almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is tumbling more than 5 percent, while Screen Holdings is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Sony is edging down 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent, while Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among other major losers, Ebara is plunging more than 14 percent, while Rakuten Group and Furukawa Electric are tumbling more than 7 percent each. Fujikura and Hitachi are declining almost 5 percent each. Ibiden is losing more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is slipping more than 3 percent, while Fuji Electric and Sumitomo Electric Industries are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Toppan Holdings is soaring more than 10 percent, Tokyo Tatemono is surging almost 9 percent, Aozora Bank is advancing almost 6 percent and Resonac Holdings is gaining more than 5 percent, while Inpex and Yokohama Financial are adding almost 5 percent each. Eisai, Sumitomo Pharma and Sumco are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 154 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw even further downside over the course of the trading day on Thursday after moving sharply lower early in the session. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside after closing mixed for two consecutive sessions.

The major averages ended the just off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq plummeted 536.10 points or 2.3 percent to 22,870.36, the S&P 500 plunged 113.43 points or 1.7 percent to 6,737.49 and the Dow tumbled 797.60 points or 1.7 percent to 47,457.22.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 1.1 percent and the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.4 percent.

Crude oil prices edged higher on Thursday as the end of the U.S. government shutdown has renewed confidence in consumption and energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.22 or 0.38 percent at $58.71 per barrel.