TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Friday as investment sentiment was dented by the losses on Wall Street amid mounting worries about the financial health of German lender Deutsche Bank. In addition, a stronger yen dragged down exporters' shares.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 254.10 points or 1.52 percent to 16,439.61, off a low of 16,407.78 earlier.
The major exporters are lower. Panasonic is declining more than 3 percent, Sony is down 2 percent, Toshiba is declining more than 2 percent and Canon is losing more than 1 percent.
Automaker Toyota is down more than 2 percent and Honda is losing almost 3 percent. Fast Retailing is lower by 0.3 percent and SoftBank is declining 2 percent.
In the oil sector, Inpex is adding 0.3 percent, while JX Holdings is down 0.5 percent despite higher crude oil prices. In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down more than 1 percent.
Among the other major losers, Fujikura and Kansai Electric Power are down more than 4 percent each, while Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings is lower by 4 percent.
On the economic front, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that industrial production in Japan advanced 1.56 percent on month in August. That beat forecasts for an increase of 0.5 percent following the 0.4 percent decline in July.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that the average of household spending in Japan was down 4.6 percent on year in August, coming in at 276,338 yen. That missed expectations for a decline of 2.3 percent following the 0.5 percent fall in July.
The Ministry also said that the jobless rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 3.1 percent in August. That was above forecasts for 3.0 percent, which would have been unchanged from the previous month.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the 101 yen-range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed notably lower Thursday, partly due to a steep drop by the shares of Deutsche Bank after Bloomberg reported that several hedge funds have withdrawn excess cash and positions held at the lender.
The Dow tumbled 195.79 points or 1.1 percent to 18,143.45, the Nasdaq slid 49.39 points or 0.9 percent to 5,259.15 and the S&P 500 fell 20.24 points or 0.9 percent to 2,151.13.
The major European markets turned in a mixed performance on Thursday. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1 percent.
Crude oil futures advanced Thursday after OPEC agreed to scale back production. November WTI crude rose 78 cents, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $47.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX