Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 28,100 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with weakness across most sectors amid the growing unrest in China over the unprecedented COVID restrictions and the zero-COVID policy.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 191.45 or 0.68 percent at 28,091.58, after hitting a low of 28,046.32 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are declining more than 1 percent each.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 2 percent each, while Advantest is declining almost 1 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing more than 2 percent, Mizuho Financial is down more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower, with Canon and Panasonic edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 1 percent. Among the other major losers, CyberAgent is plunging almost 7 percent, while Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Mining are losing almost 4 percent each. Fukuoka Financial, JFE Holdings and Kobe Steel are declining more than 3 percent each, while Chiba Bank, Showa Denko K.K., Inpex and Sumitomo Realty & Development are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 138 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a lackluster performance during trading on Friday with trading activity remaining subdued following the Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday. Despite the choppy trading, the Dow ended the session at a new seven-month closing high.

The major averages eventually finished the shortened session mixed. While the Dow climbed 152.97 points or 0.5 percent to 34,347.03, the S&P 500 edged down 1.14 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,026.12 and the Nasdaq slid 58.36 points or 0.5 percent to 11,226.36.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved modestly higher on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index closed just above the unchanged line.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Friday with investors weighing the prospects for energy demand from China. Markets also continued to closely track the news about the discussions over a price cap on Russian crude. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended lower by $1.66 or about 2.1% at $76.28 a barrel. WTI Crude futures shed about 4.8% in the week.