Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Tuesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous four sessions, with the Nikkei 225 staying a tad above the 28,000 mark, following the mildly negative cues from global markets overnight, with weakness across most sectors, primarily in technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 248.17 points or 0.88 percent at 28,001.07, after hitting a low of 27,976.45 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 4 percent after reporting a hefty loss for the first quarter, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is declining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is plunging more than 9 percent after reporting a drop in quarterly profit, hit by Shanghai lockdowns, and Screen Holdings is declining 3.5 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 2 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down more than 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.5 percent.

The major exporters are lower, with Mitsubishi Electric losing almost 1 percent, Canon edging down 0.5 percent, Panasonic declining almost 2 percent and Sony slipping almost 3 percent. Among the other major losers, Japan Steel Works is plunging almost 10 percent and Yamato Holdings is slipping almost 6 percent, while Tokai Carbon, Yokohama Rubber and Kirin Holdings are losing more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Trend Micro is soaring more than 8 percent, Nissan Chemical is surging almost 7 percent, Mitsui E&S Holdings is gaining almost 5 percent, Maruha Nichiro is adding almost 4 percent and Nippon Sheet Glass is up more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 134 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading session on Monday after failing to sustain an early move to the upside. The major averages pulled back off their highs of the session and spent the remainder of the day lingering near the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the session narrowly mixed. While the Dow inched up 29.07 points or 0.1 percent to 32,832.54, the Nasdaq slipped 13.10 points or 0.1 percent to 12,644.46 and the S&P 500 edged down 5.13 points or 0.1 percent to 4,140.06.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both advanced by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices recovered after early losses and settled sharply higher on Monday as data showed a significant increase in oil purchases by China so far this month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $1.75 or 2 percent at $90.76 a barrel.