Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading sharply lower on Thursday, reversing the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is plunging 3 percent to well below the 66,750 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in automaker stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 2,034.27 points or 2.96 percent to 66,717.24, after hitting a low of 66,538.32 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 7 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 1 percent and Honda is also adding more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling more than 7 percent, Screen Holdings is declining almost 6 percent and Tokyo Electron is slipping more than 6 percent.

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

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

Among other major losers, Kioxia Holdings is tumbling more than 12 percent and Ibiden is plunging almost 9 percent, while Sumitomo Electric Industries, Mitsui Kinzoku, Sumco and Furukawa Electric are slipping more than 7 percent each. Fujikura is sliding almost 7 percent, while Lasertec and Disco are declining almost 6 percent each. Resonac Holdings and Ebara are losing more than 5 percent each, while Socionext is down almost 5 percent.

Conversely, Nichirei is jumping more than 6 percent, while Ryohin Keikaku and Mitsubishi Motors are surging almost 5 percent each. Toho, Pan Pacific International, Shiseido, BayCurrent and NEC are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Nomura Research Institute is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 162 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Wednesday after failing to sustain an early move to the upside, but largely maintained a positive bias before closing mostly higher.

The major averages all finished the day in positive territory, adding to the gains posted in the previous session. The Nasdaq advanced 162.22 points or 0.6 percent to 26,269.23, the S&P 500 climbed 28.81 points or 0.4 percent to 7,527.40 and the Dow rose 150.37 points or 0.3 percent to 52,658.64.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices ticked lower on Wednesday after U.S. Energy Information Administration data on crude oil inventories indicated weaker-than-expected demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $0.09 or 0.11 percent at $79.25 per barrel.