Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, giving up the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 falling 600 points to stay above the 25,800 level, following the broadly negative cues overnight from global markets, with losses across all sectors amid global recession fears and ahead of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy decision later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 607.43 points or 2.30 percent to 25,823.77, after hitting a low of 25,720.80 earlier. Japanese shares closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is declining more than 3 percent and Toyota is losing almost 4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is plunging more than 5 percent, Screen Holdings is declining almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is down slipping almost 6 percent.

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

Among major exporters, Panasonic and Sony are losing 1.5 percent each, while Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are declining more than 2 percent each.

Among the other major losers, Tokai Carbon is plummeting more than 8 percent and Showa Denko K.K. is plunging more than 6 percent, while Kubota, JGC Holdings, Nissan Motor and Taiyo Yuden are losing almost 6 percent each. Sumco, Recruit Holdings, JTEKT, Komatsu, Mitsubishi Motors, Toho Zinc and Denso are declining more than 5 percent each.

Conversely, Keio is surging more than 5 percent.

In economic news, the Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Friday and then announce its decision on interest rates. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at -0.1 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 133 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading session on Thursday, more than offsetting the rally seen during trading on Wednesday. With the sharp pullback on the day, the major averages tumbled to their lowest closing levels in well over a year.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but still posted steep losses on the day. The Dow plunged 741.46 points or 2.4 percent to 29,927.07, The Nasdaq plummeted 453.06 points or 4.1 percent to 10,646.10 and the S&P 500 dove 123.22 points or 3.3 percent to 3,666.77.

The major European markets all also showed significant moves to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 2.4 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index plunged by 3.1 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Thursday after prices rebounded as tight supply levels outweighed concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $2.27 or 2 percent at $117.58 a barrel.