Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 63,050 level, with weakness in index heavyweights and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 983.08 points or 1.54 percent at 63,028.26, after touching a high of 66,393.04 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling almost 12 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging up 0.4 percent each.

In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling almost 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is losing more than 3 percent.

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

The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent, Canon is adding almost 2 percent and Sony is advancing more than 4 percent, while Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Resonac Holdings is plunging almost 9 percent, while Kioxia Holdings and Taiyo Yuden are tumbling almost 8 percent each. Ibiden is sliding almost 7 percent, Furukawa Electric is slipping almost 6 percent, while Murata Manufacturing, Mitsui Kinzoku, Fujikura and Sumco are declining almost 5 percent each. Chubu Electric Power, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Disco are losing almost 4 percent each, while Denka is down more than 3 percent.

Conversely, NEC is soaring more than 7 percent, while Nomura Research Institute and Fujitsu are jumping more than 6 percent each. Recruit Holdings is surging almost 6 percent and SHIFT is advancing almost 5 percent, while BayCurrent, Konami Group, Japan Steel Works and Trend Micro are gaining more than 4 percent each. BANDAI NAMCO is adding almost 4 percent, while Nitori Holdings, M3, Oriental Land and West Japan Railway are up more than 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 153 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks continued to turn in a strong performance throughout the trading day on Friday after moving sharply higher early in the session. The major averages all showed significant moves to the upside, regaining ground following the recent downward trend.

The major averages ended the day off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Dow shot up 509.19 points or 1 percent to 52,573.29, the Nasdaq jumped 251.31 points or 1 percent to 26,333.04 and the S&P 500 advanced 65.28 points or 0.9 percent to 7,656.98.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both advanced by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped on Friday amid hopes of a possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on reports of a possible meeting between Iran and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to defuse the gulf crisis. West Texas Intermediate Crude for October delivery was down $2.63 or 2.57 percent at $99.85 per barrel.