The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Nikkei index down more than 500 points to crash below 28,500 level, following negative cues overnight from Wall Street as weak crude oil and gold prices weighed on the market. The broad weakness in the market is partially offset by strength in technology stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is declining 515.62 points or 1.78 percent to the day's low of 28,480.30. Japanese stocks gave up early gains to end notably lower on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is declining almost 4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is down almost 2 percent.
In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 5 percent, Advantest is edging up 0.6 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 1 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 5 percent.
The major exporters Panasonic is down almost 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 1 percent, while Canon and Sony are losing almost 3 percent each.
Shares in Nikon are soaring almost 10 percent after its CFO Muneaki Tokunari said the company is expected to be fully in the black by the next fiscal year and that it will push to release 12 lenses in the next 12 months.
Among the other major gainers, AGC and Sumco are adding almost 2 percent each.
Conversely, Unitika, ANA Holdings, Nippon Yusen and Mitsui OSK Lines are all losing more than 7 percent each, while Inpex is down almost 7 percent. Isetan Mitsukoshi, Mitsui E&S Holdings, Aozora Bank, Futuoka Financial and Hino Motors are decling almost 6 percent each. Dentsu Group, Nippon Steel, West Japan Railway and Mazda Motors are losing more than 5 percent each.
In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to expand in March, and at a slightly faster pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank showed on Wednesday, with a manufacturing PMI score of 52.0. That's up from 51.4 in February and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. Japan's services PMI came in at 46.5, up from 45.8 in February, while the composite index had a score of 48.3 - up from 48.2 in the previous month.
Additionally, members of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy board said that it will maintain stimulus in the face of the Covid-19 crisis as long as necessary, minutes from the bank's meeting on January 20 and 21 revealed on Wednesday. The board said that the Japanese economy is on a modest upswing and that trend is expected to continue - although some issues remain.
At the meeting, the central bank decided to maintain its monetary policy unchanged but raised the growth projections, citing the impetus from the fiscal stimulus measures. The board voted 7-1 to retain the interest rate at -0.1 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 108 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading day on Tuesday but showed a notable move to the downside in the latter part of the session. The major averages all slid firmly into negative territory.
The major averages ended the session near their worst levels of the day. The Dow slumped 308.05 points or 0.9 percent to 32,423.15, the Nasdaq tumbled 149.85 points or 1.1 percent to 13,227.70 and the S&P 500 slid 30.07 points or 0.8 percent to 3,910.52.
Meanwhile, the major European turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index closed just above the unchanged line, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both fell by 0.4 percent.
Crude oil prices tanked on Tuesday amid rising concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to the extension of lockdown measures in several parts of Europe. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended down $3.80 or 6.2 percent at $57.76 a barrel.
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