Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is sharply lower on Friday, extending the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 56,850 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 824.04 points or 1.43 percent to 56,815.80, after hitting a low of 56,804.96 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling almost 7 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent, while Honda is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is declining almost 3 percent, while Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 2 percent, Mizuho Financial is down more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is losing almost 1 percent, Canon is down more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 4 percent and Panasonic is slipping 2.5 percent.

Among other major losers, Nikon is plunging more than 16 percent, Inpex is tumbling almost 10 percent, Tokai Carbon is sliding more than 9 percent, Rakuten Group is slipping almost 8 percent, Recruit Holdings is declining more than 7 percent, Sumitomo Metal Mining is losing almost 7 percent and NEC is down more than 6 percent, while Haseko and Dowa Holdings are losing almost 6 percent each. Sumco is slipping more than 5 percent and Marubeni is down almost 5 percent, while Nippon Electric Glass, Kajima and Hitachi are declining more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, Nissan Motor is jumping almost 9 percent, Amada is advancing almost 4 percent, KDDI is gaining more than 3 percent and Denso is adding almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 153 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a more substantial move to the downside during trading on Thursday after ending Wednesday's choppy trading session modestly lower. The major averages once again failed to sustain an early upward move and pulled sharply as the day progressed.

The major averages saw further downside going into the end of the day, closing near their lows of the session. The Nasdaq plunged 469.32 points or 2.0 percent to 22,597.15, the S&P 500 tumbled 108.71 points or 1.6 percent to 6,832.76 and the Dow slumped 669.42 points or 1.3 percent to 49,451.98.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index closed just below the unchanged line and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday after the demand forecast by the International Energy Agency for 2026 projected an overwhelming supply glut. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was down $1.97 or 3.05 percent at $62.66 per barrel.