Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to near the 64,500 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,709.91 or 2.58 percent at 64,505.43, after hitting a low of 64,396.05 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling almost 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 2 percent and Toyota is declining more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 4 percent and Screen Holdings is down almost 2 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is slipping more than 3 percent, Panasonic is declining more than 4 percent, Canon is down more than 1 percent and Sony is losing almost 3 percent.

Among other major losers, Kyowa Kirin is plunging more than 10 percent, while Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Materials are tumbling almost 9 percent each. Mitsui Kinzoku and Murata Manufacturing are sliding almost 7 percent each, while Mercari and Dowa Holdings are slipping more than 6 percent each. TDK and Taiyo Yuden are declining more than 5 percent each, while Chubu Electric Power, Tokai Carbon and Sumitomo Heavy Industries are losing almost 5 percent each. Resonac Holdings and NEC are down more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 160 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a more significant move to the downside during trading on Tuesday after moving moderately lower over the two previous sessions. The major averages all moved notably lower, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way.

The major averages ended the day off their lows of the session but still firmly negative. The Nasdaq slumped 271.11 points or 1 percent to 26,099.77, the Dow slid 419.02 points or 0.8 percent to 52,766.88 and the S&P 500 fell 54.67 points or 0.7 percent to 7,631.47. The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped by 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index declined by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Tuesday after the U.S. launched another fresh wave of attacks on Iran following the recent exchange of strikes over the weekend. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $4.27 or 4.98 percent at $90.03 per barrel.