Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - Reversing the gains in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 38,700 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 480.79 points or 1.23 percent to 38,622.43, after hitting a low of 38,367.70 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also down more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.3 percent and Toyota is also edging down 0.4 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Among major exporters, Canon is edging down 0.3 percent, while Panasonic and Sony are declining almost 2 percent each. Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Fuji Electric is plunging more than 10 percent and Socionext is losing almost 5 percent, while M3 and Lasertec are declining almost 4 percent each. Yamaha and Tokyo Tatemono are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Shiseido is surging more than 5 percent, DIC is gaining more than 3 percent, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is adding more than 3 percent and Fujikura is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 157 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher at the start of trading on Thursday but failed to sustain the initial upward move and came under pressure over the course of the session. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session and into negative territory.

After reaching record intraday highs, the Nasdaq fell 65.51 points or 0.4 percent to 16,736.03 and the S&P 500 slid 39.17 points or 0.7 percent to 5,267.84. The narrower Dow showed a more significant move to the downside, tumbling 605.78 points or 1.5 percent to 39,065.26.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also finished the day mixed after seeing early strength. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower on Thursday for a fourth straight session amid concerns about the outlook for demand, and on data showing an unexpected jump in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July sank $0.70 or 0.9 percent at $76.87 a barrel.