Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 3.7%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling 3.7 percent to below the 35,800 level, with weakness across all sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,328.31 points or 3.58 percent at 35,792.02, after hitting a low of 35,574.61 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is declining more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 3 percent and Toyota is declining almost 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is sliding 6.5 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are slipping 5.5 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 4 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 4 percent each.

The major exporters are lower. Panasonic is declining almost 4 percent, Canon is slipping more than 3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is sliding almost 5 percent and Sony is losing more than 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Renesas Electronics is plunging almost 8 percent, while MS&AD Insurance and Socionext are sliding more than 7 percent each. Fujikura, Disco and DeNA are slipping more than 6 percent each, while ENEOS Holdings, Yaskawa Electric and Fanuc are declining almost 6 percent each. Tokio Marine, Nomura Holdings, Sumco and Sumitomo Electric Industries are losing more than 5 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Monday.