Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, snapping a four-session winning streak, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 57,800 level, with weakness across most sectors led by automakers and financial stocks amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,058.38 points or 1.80 percent at 57,791.89, after hitting a low of 57,285.77 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 3 percent and Toyota is declining more than 4 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are declining almost 5 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is tumbling more than 5 percent.

The major exporters are lower. Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent, Canon is down more than 1 percent, Sony is losing more than 2 percent and Panasonic is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Nomura Holdings is tumbling more than 7 percent, while Shizuoka Financial, Tokyo Electric Power, Chiba Bank and Denka are slipping almost 7 percent each. Fukuoka Financial, Resona Holdings and Daiwa Securities are declining almost 6 percent each, while Mitsubishi Motors, Japan Airlines, Yokohama Financial and Yokohama Rubber are losing more than 5 percent each.

Conversely, Inpex is jumping more than 7 percent, DeNA is surging more than 6 percent and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is advancing almost 4 percent.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to expand in February, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Monday with a Purchasing Manager Index score of 53.0. That's up from 51.5 in January and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 156 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved notably lower during trading on Friday, extending the pullback seen during the previous session. The major averages all moved to the downside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq adding to the steep loss posted on Thursday.

The major averages ended the day well off their lows of the session but still in negative territory. The Dow slumped 521.28 points or 1.1 percent to 48,977.92, the Nasdaq slid 210.17 points or 0.9 percent to 22,688.21 and the S&P 500 fell 29.98 points or 0.4 percent to 6,878.88.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index closed just below the unchanged line and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices spiked on Friday amid growing concerns about a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for April surged $1.71 or 2.6 percent to $66.92 barrel - although it's expected to jump sharply again now that hostilities have broken out.