Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Monday, paring some of the gains of the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling just below the 29,000 mark, ignoring the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. Traders remain concerned as the government enhances their response to tackle the fourth wave of coronavirus infections with the state of emergency extended for more than 40 percent of Japan's population for three weeks until June 20.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 180.53 points or 0.62 percent to 28,968.88, after hitting a low of 28,903.70 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Nissan Motor are losing almost 3 percent each, while Toyota is adding almost 1 percent.
The major exporters are mostly lower, with Canon and Sony losing almost 2 percent each, while Panasonic edging down 0.5 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 1 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are edging up 0.3 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.
Among the other major losers, NTN is losing more than 4 percent, while Denko, Fukuoka Financial, Credit Saison, isuzu Motors, Okuma, Nikon, IHI and Amada are all down more than 3 percent each. Hitachi Construction Machinery, Citizen Watch, Komatsu, Japan Steel Works, Honda Moto and Shinsei Bank are all declining almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Astellas Pharma is gaining more than 4 percent, Chugai Pharmaceutical is adding almost 2 percent and CyberAgent is up more than 1 percent.
In economic news, industrial production in Japan rose 2.5 percent on month in April, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Monday. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 4.1 percent following the downwardly revised 1.7 percent gain in March (originally 2.2 percent). On a yearly basis, industrial production jumped 15.4 percent, beating forecasts for 13.0 percent following the 3.4 percent increase in the previous month. Upon the release of the data, the METI maintained its assessment of industrial production, saying that it is picking up.
Also on Monday, the METI said that the total value of retail sales in Japan was down a seasonally adjusted 4.5 percent on month in April, coming in at 12.200 trillion yen. That missed expectations for a gain of 2.0 percent following the 1.2 percent increase in March. On a yearly basis, retail sales climbed 12.0 percent - again missing expectations for 15.3 percent after rising 5.2 percent in the previous month.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 109 yen-range on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed higher on Friday, amid rising optimism about economic recovery thanks to upbeat economic data, and prospects of additional fiscal stimulus. However, the gains were just modest for all the major averages s buying interest remained somewhat subdued.
The Dow closed up by 64.81 points or 0.19 percent at 34,529.45, more than 100 points down from the day's high. The Nasdaq, which rose to 13,820.87, settled with a gain of 12.46 points or 0.09 percent at 13,748.74, almost at the day's low. The S&P 500 ended up by 3.23 points or 0.08 percent at 4,204.11.
The major European have also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up 0.04 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index gained 0.75 percent and 0.74 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures settled lower Friday, snapping a five-day winning streak as traders took profits ahead to the upcoming OPEC meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July fell $0.53 or 0.8 percent at $66.32 a barrel.
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