The Japanese stock market is notably lower in on Thursday, snapping the five-day winning streak, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 just below the 28,500 mark, despite the positive cues overnight from Wall Street. Traders remain concerned as the Japanese government mulls tougher measures to contain the still higher daily coronavirus infection rates caused by highly contagious variants of the virus, though the daily infection rates are steadily declining since it peaked ten days ago.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 178.34 points or 0.62 percent to 28,463.85, after hitting a low of 28,360.56 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging up 0.3 percent each.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are down almost 1 percent each. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging down 0.3 percent each.
The major exporters are mostly higher. Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent, while Panasonic is losing almost 2 percent, Sony is edging down 0.1 percent and Canon is down 0.5 percent.
Among the other major losers, Fijitsu and Japan Exchange Group are losing almost 4 percent, while Konami Holdings, Toyota Tsusho, Showa Denko and JFT Holdings are down more than 3 percent each. Tokai Carbon, Recruit Holdings, Sapporo Holdings, Seven Holdings and Mitsui OSK Lines are declining almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Astellas Pharma and Marui Group are gaining more than 3 percent each, while ANA Holdings is up almost 3 percent. CyberAgent and Z Holdings are adding more than 2 percent each, while Japan Steel Works, Asahi Group, Taiheiyo Cement, Casio Computer and Sumitomo Metal Mining are up almost 2 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 109 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, partly offsetting the modest weakness seen in the previous session. The major averages all closed in positive territory, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq outperformed its counterparts.
After ending Tuesday’s trading marginally lower, the Nasdaq climbed 80.82 points or 0.6 percent to 13,738.00. The S&P 500 also edged up 7.86 points or 0.2 percent to 4,195.99, while the narrower Dow inched up 10.59 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 34,323.05.
Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a lackluster performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index closed marginally higher, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line and the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday, rising for a fourth straight session as data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $0.14 or 0.2 percent at $66.21 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Notably Lower
2021-05-27 02:49:35
