Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 49,800 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 398.33 points or 0.79 percent at 49,769.78, after hitting a low of 49,480.36 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is losing almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Advantest are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

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

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic is declining more than 3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent, Sony is edging down 0.5 percent and Canon is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Fujikura is tumbling more than 5 percent and Japan Exchange Group is declining almost 5 percent, while Sumitomo Electric Industries, Furukawa Electric and Yaskawa Electric are losing almost 4 percent each. Resonac Holdings, Renesas Electronics, Isetan Mitsukoshi, Taiyo Yuden, SHIFT, Aeon and Shin-Etsu Chemical are down more than 3 percent each, while OKUMA and Fanuc are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, Japan's composite index continued to expand in December, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Tuesday with a composite PMI score of 51.5. That's down from 52.0 in November, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the manufacturing index improved to 49.7 from 48.7 in November, while the services PMI fell to 52.5 from 53.2.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 154-yen range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved to the upside at the start of trading on Monday but quickly gave back ground early in the session. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and spent much of the rest of the day lingering near the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the day modestly lower. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 137.76 points or 0.6 percent to 23,057.41, the S&P 500 dipped 10.90 points or 0.2 percent to 6,816.51 and the Dow edged down 41.49 points or 0.1 percent at 48,416.56.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.6 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices retreated on Monday as lingering oversupply concerns offset worries about potential supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.62 or 1.1 percent to $56.82 per barrel.