Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading notably lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 50,800 level, with weakness in exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 342.68 points or 0.63 percent to 53,767.82, after hitting a low of 53,989.79 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Thursday.

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

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.2 percent, while Mizuho Financial is gaining more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is declining almost 2 percent, Canon is losing more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.3 percent, while Panasonic is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among other major losers, BayCurrent is tumbling almost 8 percent and JGC Holdings is slipping almost 5 percent, while Aeon and Rakuten Group are declining more than 4 percent each. SHIFT, Ryohin Keikaku, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are losing almost 4 percent each, while Shionogi & Co., Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, M3 and Tokyo Electric Power are down almost 3 percent each. Sumitomo Pharma, East Japan Railway and Nippon Yusen K.K. are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Komatsu and Isetan Mitsukoshi are gaining more than 4 percent each, while SMC and Lasertec are adding almost 3 percent each.

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

On Wall Street, stocks gave back some ground in the latter part of the trading day on Thursday but managed to remain mostly higher, after turning in a strong performance for much of the session. The major averages all ended the day in positive territory, regaining some ground following the pullback seen over the two previous sessions.

The Dow advanced 292.81 points or 0.6 percent to 49,442.44, the Nasdaq climbed 58.27 points or 0.3 percent to 23,530.02 and the S&P 500 rose 17.87 points or 0.3 percent to 6,944.47.

Meanwhile, the major European markets closed mixed on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slipped by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index rose by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices plummeted on Thursday as the potential for a U.S.-Iran confrontation diminished for the time being. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was down $2.83 or 4.56 percent at $59.19 per barrel.