Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the sharp gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 38,500 level, with losses across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 388.59 or 1.00 percent at 38,446.51, after hitting a low of 38,388.12 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Screen Holdings is losing almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging down 0.4 percent and Sony is losing almost 4 percent, while Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are declining almost 1 percent each.

Among other major losers, Ricoh plunging more than 7 percent, while Nintendo, Nomura Holdings, and NEC are declining almost 4 percent each. Dai-ichi Life and Fujikura are losing more than 3 percent each, while Fujitsu, Fuji Electric, East Japan Railway, Nitori Holdings and Credit Saison are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Yokogawa Electric is surging more than 7 percent, while Oriental Land, Socionext and Sumitomo Pharma are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 155 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks saw modest strength throughout much of the trading session on Tuesday but gave back ground in afternoon trading to end the day little changed. The Dow still managed to close higher for the fifth consecutive session, reaching its best closing level in a month.

The major averages ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Nasdaq edged down 16.69 points or 0.1 percent to 16,332.56, the Dow crept up 31.99 points or 0.1 percent to 38,884.26 and the S&P 500 inched up 6.96 points or 0.1 percent to 5,187.70.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index shot up by 1.4 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices settled slightly lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for global oil demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.10 at $78.38 a barrel.