Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling to near the 34,200 level, with weakness in exporters, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 59.74 points or 0.17 percent at 34,220.18, after hitting a low of 34,109.85 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is slipping almost 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is losing more than 1 percent, while Screen Holdings is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.2 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are losing almost 1 percent each, while Sony is declining more than 1 percent and Panasonic is edging 0.1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Fujikura and BayCurrent are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Disco, Hino Motors and Oji Holdings are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 140 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move to the downside during trading on Monday after turning in a lackluster performance to close out the previous week. The major averages all moved sharply lower, with the Dow adding to the steep loss posted last Thursday.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the end of the day but remained firmly negative. The Nasdaq plunged 415.55 points or 2.6 percent to 15,870.90, the Dow tumbled 971.82 points or 2.5 percent to 38,170.41 and the S&P 500 slumped 124.50 points or 2.4 percent to 5,158.20.

Meanwhile, the major European markets were closed on the day in honor of Easter Monday.

Crude oil prices pulled back sharply Monday on reports of progress in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, while trade war concerns also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery plunged $1.60 or 2.5 percent to $63.08 a barrel.