Japanese Market Tumbling 6.7%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 plunging 6.7 percent to below the 51,950 level, with strong losses across most sectors led by exporters, technology and financial stocks amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 3,696.13 points or 6.65 percent at 51,924.71, after hitting a low of 51,796.77 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 10 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 2 percent and Toyota is declining almost 5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is plunging more than 11 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are sliding more than 9 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are plunging almost 7 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is tumbling more than 8 percent.

The major exporters are lower. Mitsubishi Electric is tumbling almost 7 percent, Canon is down more than 2 percent, Sony is sliding almost 6 percent and Panasonic is sliding almost 8 percent.

Among the other major losers, Furukawa Electric is plummeting almost 15 percent and Resonac Holdings is plunging almost 13 percent, while Fujikura, Mitsui Kinzoku, Ibiden and Sumitomo Electric Industries are tumbling more than 10 percent each. Renesas Electronics is sliding almost 10 percent, while Tokuyama, Lasertec, Murata Manufacturing, Ebara and Fuji Electric are slipping more than 9 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, Japan posted a current account surplus of 941.6 billion yen in January, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. That was shy of expectations for a surplus of 960 billion yen following the 729 billion yen surplus in December.

Imports were down 7.7 percent on year to 9.644 trillion yen and exports jumped an annual 20.3 percent to 9.044 trillion yen for a trade deficit of 600.4 billion yen. The capital account had a shortfall of 11.0 billion, while the financial account had a deficit of 506.5 billion yen.

Meanwhile, the value of overall bank lending in Japan was up 4.5 percent on year in February, the Bank of Japan said on Monday - coming in at 663.823 trillion yen. That was above expectations for an increase of 4.4 percent, which would have been unchanged from the January reading following a downward revision from 4.5 percent.

Excluding trusts, bank lending rose 4.9 percent on year to 584.664 trillion yen, while lending from trusts rose 1.5 percent to 79.158 trillion yen. Lending from foreign banks surged an annual 32.1 percent to 6.469 trillion yen.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Friday, adding to the losses posted in the previous session. With the steep losses on the day, the Dow and the Nasdaq dropped to their lowest closing levels in over three months and the S&P 500 hit a two-month closing low.

The major averages all finished the day firmly in negative territory. The Nasdaq plunged 361.31 points or 1.6 percent to 22,387.68, the S&P 500 tumbled 90.69 points or 1.3 percent to 6,740.02 and the Dow slumped 453.19 points or 1.0 percent to 47,501.55.

The major European markets have all also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 1.2 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.9 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Friday after Qatar warned of a production halt in the gulf as the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has heavily disrupted energy supply routes through the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was up $9.88 or 12.20 percent at $90.89 per barrel.