Japanese stock market is modestly lower after paring early gains on Monday, with the Nikkei 225 dropping below the 28,000 mark, as the government enhances their response to tackle the fourth wave of coronavirus infections with expanded and extended state of emergency in more areas. The cues from Wall Street on Friday were broadly positive.
According to reports, Japan recorded the fifth straight day of more than 6000 daily coronavirus infections on Saturday driven by the more contagious variants. Tougher measures are imposed on Sunday in six prefectures, with three coming under an expanded state of emergency and another three under a quasi-emergency. The slow vaccine rollout is also causing concerns.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 163.22 points or 0.58 percent to 27,921.25, after hitting a low of 27,865.37 and a high of 28,312.78 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 3 percent, while Toyota is adding more than 2 percent.
The major exporters are higher, with Sony adding more than 1 percent and Panasonic edging up 0.4 percent, while Canon is flat. Mitsubishi Electric is adding 0.5 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is adding almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 3 percent each. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.2 percent and Mizuho Financial is gaining more than 2 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Ebara is surging almost 10 percent, Dentsu is adding almost 7 percent, Yamaha is up more than 6 percent and Credit Saison is gaining almost 5 percent. Tokyu Fudosan, Isetan Mitsukoshi, Asahi Group, Tokyu and Z Holdings are all up more the 4 percent each. Yokohama Rubber is adding almost 4 percent, while Nippon Suisan, JGC Holdings, Toyo Seikan and Takara are adding more than 3 percent each.
Conversely, Fujikura is plunging more than 14 percent and Mitsubishi Materials is down more than 8 percent, while Nissan Chemical and Comsys are losing almost 7 percent. Nexon is down more than 5 percent and Taisei is losing more than 4 percent, while T&D Holdings, Konica Minolta, Sharp Japan Post and Alps Alpine are declining more than 3 percent each.
In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 0.7 percent on month in April, the Bank of Japan said on Monday. That exceeded expectations for a gain of 0.5 percent and up from the downwardly revised 0.6 percent increase in March (originally 0.8 percent). On a yearly basis, producer prices jumped 3.6 percent, the highest since September 2014, – again beating forecasts for 3.1 percent and up sharply from 1.0 percent in the previous month.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 109 yen-range on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Friday, extending the rebound seen in the previous session. The major averages all climbed firmly into positive territory, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq showing a particularly strong advance.
The major averages ended the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 360.68 points or 1.1 percent to 34,382.13, the Nasdaq soared 304.99 points or 2.3 percent to 13,429.98 and the S&P 500 surged up 61.35 points or 1.5 percent at 4,173.85.
The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index surged up by 1.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday, due largely to short covering after the setback in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended up by $1.55 or 2.4 percent at $65.37 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 0.7 percent for the week.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Modestly Lower, Paring Early Gains
2021-05-17 02:34:22
