Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Wednesday, adding to the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 37,900 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 355.60 or 0.93 percent at 37,882.19, after hitting a low of 37,811.26 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.4 percent and Toyota is declining more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is slipping 5.5 percent, while Screen Holdings is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing 1.5 percent, Mizuho Financial is declining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down almost 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is losing more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 2 percent and Sony is edging down 0.4 percent, while Panasonic is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among other major losers, M3 is slipping almost 5 percent, Disco is losing more than 4 percent and Renesas Electronics is declining almost 4 percent, while IHI, Japan Steel Works, Resona Holdings and Ebara are down more than 3 percent each. DeNA, Subaru and Lasertec are sliding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sumco is surging more than 7 percent and Shiseido is gaining almost 4 percent, while Sumitomo Realty & Development and Keisei Electric Railway are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 148 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks regained some ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after moving sharply lower early in the session, but remained firmly negative. With the continued weakness, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed lower for the fourth straight session.

The Nasdaq plunged 260.54 points or 1.4 percent to a three-month closing low of 19,026.39 and the S&P 500 slid 28.00 points or 0.5 percent to a one-month closing low of 5,955.25, although the narrower Dow bucked the downtrend and climbed 159.95 points or 0.4 percent to 43,621.16.

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices settled sharply lower on Tuesday as concerns about demand and oversupply in the market weighed and pushed the commodity's prices to the lowest level in about 11 weeks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled lower by $1.77 or at $68.93 a barrel.