Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - Reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is significantly lower on Thursday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 34,700 level, with weakness across most sectors led by technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 407.87 points or 1.16 percent to 34,681.75, after hitting a low of 34,207.16 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is plunging more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 1 percent, while Honda is gaining more than 1 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.3 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 2 percent and Mizuho Financial is declining more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is gaining more than 2 percent and Sony is adding almost 3 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent and Panasonic is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among other major losers, Sumco is plummeting more than 18 percent, Shiseido is plunging 15.5 percent and Taiyo Yuden is sliding more than 11 percent, while Sumitomo Heavy Industries and Sumitomo Metal Mining are declining more than 8 percent each. Disco and Olympus are losing more than 6 percent each. Renesas Electronics, Socionext, Chiba Bank and Isetan Mitsukoshi are down almost 5 percent each, while Hitachi and Keyence are losing more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, Lasertec is skyrocketing more than 22 percent, Isuzu Motors is soaring 10.5 percent, Nitori Holdings is surging more than 8 percent, Asahi Group is gaining more than 7 percent and Sumitomo Pharma is adding almost 6 percent, while Mitsubishi Logistics and Idemitsu Kosan are advancing more than 4 percent each. Mercari, NH Foods and Daiwa House Industry are rising almost 4 percent each, while Nichirei, Toto, Nikon, Sapporo Holdings and Keisei Electric Railway are advancing more than 3 percent each.

In economic news, Japan posted a current account surplus of 1.533 trillion yen in June, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday - up 0.9 percent on year. That was shy of expectations for a surplus of 1.790 trillion yen following the 2.850 trillion yen surplus in May.

Imports were up 3.4 percent on year at 8.612 trillion yen, while exports rose an annual 5.9 percent to 9.169 trillion yen for a trade surplus of 556.3 billion yen. The capital account showed a deficit of 53.6 billion yen, while the financial account had a shortfall of 1.716 trillion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 146 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after extending yesterday's rebound early in the session. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and into negative territory.

The major averages ended the day just off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq slumped 171.05 points or 1.1 percent to 16,195.81, the S&P 500 slid 40.53 points or 0.8 percent to 5,199.50 and the Dow fell 234.21 points or 0.6 percent to 38,763.45.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index soared 1.9 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index spiked by 1.8 percent and the German DAX Index shot up by 1.5 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday as data showed a much larger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $2.03 or 2.75 percent at $75.23 a barrel.