Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading sharply lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 53,650 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, automakers and technology stocks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 813.87 points or 1.49 percent to 53,639.09, after hitting a low of 53,286.69 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 2 percent and Honda is tumbling more than 6 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.4 percent and Mizuho Financial is declining more than 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Panasonic are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 2 percent. Sony is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among other major losers, Honda Motor is tumbling almost 7 percent and Ebara is sliding almost 6 percent, while BayCurrent, Sumco, IHI and Nissan Motor are declining almost 5 percent each. Renesas Electronics and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are slipping more than 4 percent each, while Yaskawa Electric, Disco, Mazda Motor and Taiyo Yuden are losing more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Marubeni is jumping more than 5 percent, Sumitomo Chemical is surging almost 4 percent and Japan Steel Works is advancing almost 4 percent, while CyberAgent and Nintendo are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 159 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading session on Thursday after closing little changed for two straight days. With the steep losses on the day, the major averages dropped to their lowest closing level in well over three months.

The major averages finished the day just off their lows of the session. The Dow plunged 739.42 points or 1.6 percent to 46,677.85, the Nasdaq tumbled 404.16 points or 1.8 percent to 22,311.98 and the S&P 500 slumped 103.18 points or 1.5 percent to 6,672.62.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index declined by 0.7 percent, the German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Thursday after the new leadership in Iran refused to bow down to U.S. pressure in the raging Middle East war and instead vowed revenge. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was up $7.45 or 8.54 percent at $94.70 per barrel.