Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - Giving up most of the gains in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Thursday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 33,100 level, with losses across most sectors led by exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 390.33 points or 1.17 percent to 33,055.57, after hitting a low of 32,998.89 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is declining almost 1 percent and Honda is losing 1.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is declining almost 3 percent, while Screen Holdings is down more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.2 percent, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.4 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is flat.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are losing almost 1 percent each, while Panasonic and Sony are declining more than 1 percent each.

Among other major losers, Renesas Electronics and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha are losing almost 4 percent each, while Yokogawa Electric, M3 and CyberAgent are declining more than 3 percent each. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mercari, Shimizu and Inpex are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power is gaining more than 4 percent and Sompo Holdings is adding almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 147 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave up their gains after a positive start and moved along the flat line till around mid-afternoon on Wednesday, before drifting lower to end the day's session on a weak note.

The major averages all ended modestly lower. The Dow, which advanced to 36,292.58 in early trades, settled at 36,054.43, losing 70.13 points or 0.19 percent. The S&P 500 ended down 17.84 points or 0.39 percent at 4,549.34, while the Nasdaq closed lower by 83.20 points or 0.58 percent at 14,146.71.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index surged 0.75 percent, the French CAC 40 climbed 0.66 percent, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced 0.34 percent. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended up 0.52 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday, extending losses to a fifth straight day after data showed a large increase in gasoline inventories in the U.S. last week, raising concerns about the outlook for fuel demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January sank $2.94 or 4.1 percent at $69.38 a barrel.