Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,600 level, following the mixed cues from global markets overnight, with weakness across most sectors, led by technology stocks, which mirrored their peers on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 304.73 points or 1.10 percent to 27,508.53, after hitting a low of 27,467.59 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 1 percent and Honda is down more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing almost 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 5 percent and Advantest is down more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.5 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is losing more than 1 percent. Among the major exporters, Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are losing more than 1 percent each, while Sony is declining more than 2 percent and Canon is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the other major losers, SMC and Daikin Industries are losing almost 4 percent each, while Ebara and Fujitsu are down more than 3 percent. Hoya, Keyence, Minebea Mitsumi, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Fukuoka Financial, Mazda Motor, Nissan Motor and Kubota are all declining almost 3 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 131 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stock indexes turned in a mixed performance during trading on Wednesday following the weakness seen in the previous session.

While the Dow rose 80.34 points or 0.2 percent to 33,482.72, the S&P 500 closed down 10.22 points or 0.3 percent to 4,090.38. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a more significant move to the downside, slumping 129.47 points or 1.1 percent to 11,996.86.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday as worries about economic slowdown outweighed data showing a drop in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended lower by $0.10 at $80.61 a barrel.