TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday in choppy trading despite the modest gains overnight on Wall Street. Investors remained cautious ahead of the upcoming monetary policy decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan this week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is declining 10.85 points or 0.05 percent to 21,113.15, after touching a high of 21,153.65 earlier. Japanese shares ended marginally higher on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank is losing more than 1 percent and Fast Retailing is declining 0.7 percent. SoftBank's Vision Fund has led a $205 million investment in San Francisco-based health startup Collective Health.
In the auto space, Toyota Motor is advancing almost 1 percent and Honda Motor is rising 0.5 percent.
The major exporters are mostly lower on a weaker yen. Sony is lower by almost 1 percent, Canon is declining 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.1 percent, while Panasonic is adding more than 1 percent.
Among tech stocks, Tokyo Electron is declining more than 1 percent, while Advantest is edging up 0.1 percent.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is rising 0.2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is higher by 0.4 percent. In the oil sector, Inpex is losing more than 1 percent, while Japan Petroleum is edging up 0.1 percent after crude oil prices declined overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Shionogi & Co., Tokuyama Corp. and Toppan Printing are all rising more than 2 percent each.
On the flip side, Tokai Carbon is losing 4 percent and JGC Corp. is lower by more than 3 percent. Tokyo Electric Power and Aozora Bank are declining almost 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 108 yen-range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground going into the close of trading on Monday, but still closed higher. The strength on Wall Street partly reflected optimism the Fed will signal a near-term interest rate cut when announcing its monetary policy decision on Wednesday.
While the Nasdaq climbed 48.37 points or 0.7 percent to 7,845.02, the Dow edged up 22.92 points or 0.1 percent to 26,112.53 and the S&P 500 inched up 2.69 points or 0.1 percent to 2,889.67.
The major European markets ended mixed on Monday. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K'.s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.2 and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Monday amid renewed concerns about energy demand prospects due to economic slowdown in China. WTI crude for July dipped $0.58 or 1.1 percent to close at $51.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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