Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - Extending the losses in the previous sessions, the Japanese market is significantly lower on Thursday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 39,700 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 311.65 points or 0.78 percent to 39,669.41, after hitting a low of 39,607.06 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is declining almost 2 percent and Honda is losing 1.5 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is losing more than 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent and Sony is edging down 0.4 percent. Canon is flat.

Among other major losers, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is losing more than 5 percent and Mitsubishi Motors is sliding almost 5 percent, while Nippon Yusen K.K., Nissan Motor, Mazda Motor, Lasertec and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are declining more than 4 percent each. Omron, Hino Motors and ZOZO are down more than 3 percent each, while Mitsui & Co. and Subaru are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Ebara is gaining almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 158 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction during trading on Wednesday following the sharp pullback seen over the course of Tuesday's session. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing narrowly mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged down 10.80 points or 0.1 percent to 19,478.87, the Dow rose 106.84 points or 0.3 percent to 42,635.20 and the S&P 500 crept up 9.22 points or 0.2 percent to 5,918.25.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower Wednesday as a sharp increase in gasoline stockpiles and a stronger dollar weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended lower by $0.93 or 1.25 percent at $73.32 a barrel.