Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading sharply lower on Thursday, reversing the sharp gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 67,300 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,118.16 points or 1.63 percent to 67,283.97, after hitting a low of 67,262.86 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 8 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 1 percent and Honda is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings are declining almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 3 percent, Canon is losing more than 1 percent, Panasonic is tumbling almost 5 percent and Sony is slipping more than 2 percent.

Among other major lower, Mercari, Socionext, Fujikura and Ibiden are tumbling more than 6 percent each, while Toppan Holdings is slipping almost 6 percent. Daiichi Sankyo, Furukawa Electric, AGC and Sumitomo Metal Mining are sliding more than 4 percent each, while Yaskawa Electric and Nomura Research Institute are declining almost 4 percent each. Shin-Etsu Chemical, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Tokyo Electric Power are losing more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Disco is advancing more than 4 percent and Konica Minolta is gaining almost 4 percent, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Isuzu Motors are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 159 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading session on Wednesday, giving back ground after trending higher over the past several sessions. The major averages all moved to the downside, with the Dow showing a notable slump.

The Dow showed a downward move going into the end of the day, closing down 620.72 points or 1.2 percent at 50,687.07. The Nasdaq also slid 239.93 points or 0.9 percent to 26,853,98, while the S&P 500 fell 56.10 points or 0.7 percent to 7,553.68.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped 1.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices soared on Wednesday as fresh military strikes in the Middle East renew war concerns as the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked for oil and energy trade. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was up $2.31 or 2.46 percent at $96.07 per barrel.