The Japanese stock market is slightly lower in choppy trading on Thursday, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 staying above the 27,400 level, following the mixed cues overnight from Wall Street, on domestic political developments and as the unprecedented spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus continues to stifle economic activity in most of the cities in the country.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to make moves that might help restore political stability as he reportedly intends to dissolve the lower house of parliament in mid-September and is considering holding the general election on October 17. However, Suga said he had no such plan.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 21.31 points or 0.07 percent to 28,429.71, after touching a high of 28,626.20 and hitting a low of 28,412.91 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent and Honda is losing almost 1 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding 1.5 percent, while Screen Holdings is flat.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 1 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down more than 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.5 percent.
The major exporters are lower. Sony is gaining almost 1 percent, while Panasonic is losing 1.5 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is down almost 1 percent and Canon is declining more than 1 percent.
Among the other major gainers, NTT Data, Kikkoman, NEXON and Yokogawa Electric are gaining almost 3 percent each, while Taiyo Yuden, Toto, MS&AD Insurance Group and Nissan Chemical are adding almost 2 percent each.
Conversely, West Japan Railway is plunging more than 1 percent, East Japan Railway is losing more than 8 percent, Central Japan Railway is down almost 6 percent, Tokyu is declining more than 5 percent and Mitsui Mining & Smelting is lower by more than 4 percent, while Nippon Steel, Odakyu Electric Railway and ANA Holdings are losing almost 4 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the 110 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks saw strength for much of the session on Wednesday before giving back ground in the latter part of the trading day. Despite the late-day pullback, the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the session at a new record closing high.
The major averages finished the day on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the Dow edged down 48.20 points or 0.1 percent to 35,312.53, the Nasdaq rose 50.15 points or 0.3 percent to 15,309.38 and the S&P 500 inched up 1.41 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,524.09.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.2 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, although the German DAX Index bucked the uptrend and slipped by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Wednesday after data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended up $0.09 or 0.1 percent at $68.59 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Slightly Lower
2021-09-02 02:24:56
