The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Thursday, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 treading below the 29,100 level, driven by a huge selloff in technology shares. It also tracked weak cues overnight from Wall Street on renewed concerns over bond yields.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 487.35 points or 0.65 percent to the day's low of 29,071.75. Japanese shares closed higher on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is declining almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is losing nearly 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is lower by more than 1 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.4 percent each.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 1 percent, while Canon is losing more than 2 percent, Panasonic is declining more than 1 percent and Sony is down almost 3 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Hitachi Zosen in rising almost 17 percent, and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is adding more than 5 percent and Mitsui OSK Lines is up more than 3 percent, while Shinsei Bank, Tosoh Corp., Nippon Yusen and Tokai Carbon are all higher by nearly 3 percent each.
Conversely, Sumitomo Metal Mining is losing more than 6 percent and Z Holdings is lower by over 4 percent. Mitsuii Mining & Smelting, Pacific Metals and Mitsui E&S Holdings are all declining almost 4 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 107 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, extending the pullback seen in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed another particularly steep drop, tumbling to its lowest closing level in nearly two months.
The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the session at their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq plunged 361.04 points or 2.7 percent to 12,997.75, the S&P 500 slumped 50.57 points or 1.3 percent to 3,819.72 and the Dow fell 121.43 points or 0.4 percent to 31,270.09.
The major European also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures were sharply higher Wednesday amid speculation that OPEC may decide to extend production curbs for the near future. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended up $1.53 or 2.62 percent at $61.28 a barrel.
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