TOKYO
(dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Thursday, following the overnight sell-off on Wall Street. Investor sentiment was also dented by weak Japanese core machinery order data.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 634.79 points or 3.58 percent to 17,080.84, off a low of 17,004.12 earlier. The market had snapped a six-day losing streak to close 2.9 percent higher on Wednesday.
The major exporters are down sharply. Panasonic is declining more than 4 percent, Sony is losing 6 percent and Toshiba is lower by more than 3 percent. In addition, Casio Computer is down 3 percent, Canon is lower by almost 3 percent and Sharp is declining more than 3 percent.
Market heavyweight Fast Retailing and SoftBank are declining more than 4 percent each.
In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are also is declining more than 4 percent each, while Mizuho Financial Group is lower by more than 3 percent.
The Nikkei businesses daily reported that Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is in talks to acquire a 20 percent stake in Security Bank Corp of
the Philippines
for about
100 billion yen.
Oil stock Inpex is losing 5 percent and JX Holdings is down 4 percent.
Sumitomo Corp. will incur an impairment loss of about 77 billion yen on a nickel development project in
Madagascar
. The trading house also withdrew its previous forecast for a net profit of
230 billion yen for the fiscal year ending March 31. Shares of Sumitomo are down more than 6 percent.
Among the other major losers, NTN Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. are lower by almost 6 percent each.
In economic news, the Cabinet Office said that core machine orders in
Japan
plummeted 14.4 percent on month in November, worth
773.8 billion yen. The headline figure missed forecasts for a decline of 7.3 percent, following the 10.7 percent increase in October.
The Bank of Japan said that producer prices were down 0.3 percent on month in December. That beat forecasts for a decline of 0.4 percent, following the 0.1 percent contraction in November.
In the currency market, the
U.S.
dollar is trading in the mid
117 yen-range in
Tokyo
on Thursday, down from Wednesday's close in the lower
118 yen range in
Tokyo
.
On Wall Street, stocks resumed their recent sell-off on Wednesday, as concerns about the global economy and the pullback in the price of crude oil continued to generate downward momentum.
The Dow tumbled 364.81 points or 2.2 percent to 16,151.41, the Nasdaq plummeted 159.85 points or 3.4 percent to 4,526.06 and the S&P 500 dove 48.40 points or 2.5 percent to 1,890.28.
The major European markets turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday. While the German DAX Index dipped by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the
U.K.'s
FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.5 percent.
Crude oil futures were flat Wednesday, pausing after a collapse below $30 to the lowest in 12 years. WTI oil for February delivery edged up 4 cents, or 0.1 percent, to settle at $30.48 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, breaking a brutal seven-day losing streak.
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