Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 2%

(RTTNews) - Extending the losses in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is falling more than 2 percent to be just above the 38,200 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks after the Bank of Japan kept rates steady and warned of "high uncertainties" following the worst election result in 15 years for the ruling party.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 862.94 points or 2.21 percent to 38,218.31, after hitting a low of 38,218.31 earlier. Japanese stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing 1.5 percent and Toyota is declining almost 2 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among major exporters, Canon is losing more than 1 percent and Sony is down almost 1 percent, while Panasonic is soaring more than 10 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is skyrocketing almost 15 percent.

Among other major losers, Lasertec is plummeting almost 15 percent, Socionext is plunging more than 11 percent, Fujitsu is sliding more than 9 percent, Renesas Electronics is slipping almost 7 percent and Shiseido is declining more than 6 percent, while Fujikura and Sumitomo Heavy Industries are losing more than 5 percent each. Nikon is down almost 5 percent, while Nippon Electric Glass, TDK, Hitachi, Nitto Denko, NTN and Furukawa Electric are declining more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, Fuji Electric and Keisei Electric Railway are gaining more than 5 percent each, while JTEKT is adding more than 4 percent. Oriental Land and Resona Holdings are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 152 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks continued to see considerable weakness throughout the trading day on Thursday after moving sharply lower early in the session. The Nasdaq saw a particularly steep drop on the day amid a sell-off by technology stocks.

The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the session near their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq plunged 512.78 points or 2.8 percent to 18,095.15, the S&P 500 tumbled 108.22 points or 1.9 percent to 5,705.45 and the Dow slumped 378.08 points or 0.9 percent to 41,763.46.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slumped 1.1 percent, the German DAX Index slid by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index declined by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday amid expectations of increased demand from the U.S. and a likely delay in OPEC's planned output increase from December. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $0.65 or 0.95 percent at $69.26 a barrel.