Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to near the 38,700 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 234.26 or 0.60 percent at 38,712.67, after hitting a low of 38,624.96 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 2 percent each, while Screen Holdings is down more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.5 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Panasonic are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Sony is losing more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Ebara is declining almost 4 percent, while Chugai Pharmaceutical and Shionogi & Co. are losing more than 3 percent each. Kubota, Sumitomo Pharma, Mitsui Fudosan, Socionext, JGC Holdings, Teijin, Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sharp is surging almost 5 percent and Nidec is gaining more than 4 percent, while Isetan Mitsukoshi and Daiwa Securities are adding more than 3 percent each. NEXON, Sompo Holdings and Fukuoka Financial Group are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 156 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading day on Tuesday following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. Despite the choppy trading on the day, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reached new record closing highs.

The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged but moved to the upside going into the close. The S&P 500 climbed 13.28 points or 0.3 percent to 5,321.41, the Nasdaq rose 37.75 points or 0.2 percent to 16,832.62 and the Dow edged up 66.22 points or 0.2 percent to 39,872.99.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.7 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday, slumping for a second straight session amid concerns that the central bank might keep rates higher for a longer period. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June dropped to around $79.06 a barrel, down 0.74 or 0.93 percent.