Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, extending the slight gains in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 49,600 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and exporter. Financial stocks were the only bright spot.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 668.02 points or 1.33 percent at 49,585.89, after hitting a low of 49,550.56 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 2 percent and Toyota is down more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is declining more than 3 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.3 percent. Tokyo Electron is flat.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are advancing more than 2 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is gaining more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 1 percent and Canon is down almost 1 percent, while Panasonic and Sony are declining almost 3 percent each.

Among the other major losers, Fujikura and Sumitomo Pharma are tumbling almost 6 percent each, while Tokyo Electric Power and Mitsui Kinzoku are declining more than 5 percent each. Furukawa Electric is down almost 4 percent, while Inpex, Ebara, IHI, Sumitomo Realty & Development and Denka are losing more than 3 percent each. Japan Steel Works, NEC and Toppan Holdings are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Secom, Fukuoka Financial, Shizuoka Financial and Chiba Bank are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to contract in November, albeit at a slower rate, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 48.7. That's up from 48.2in October, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks extended their pre-holiday rally during trading on Friday, with traders returning to their desks following the Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday. The major averages all moved to the upside on the day, closing higher for the fifth consecutive session.

The major averages ended the day just off their highs of the session. The Dow climbed 289.30 points or 0.6 percent to 47,716.42, the Nasdaq advanced 151.00 points or 0.7 percent to 23,365.69 and the S&P 500 rose 36.48 points or 0.5 percent to 6,849.09.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. The German DAX Index, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index all rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices edged higher on Friday a proposed peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war remains in limbo. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.18 or 0.31 percent at $58.83 per barrel.