TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous four sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is tumbling nearly 3 percent to below the 50,050 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,465.73 or 2.85 percent at 50,031.47, after hitting a low of 50,004.27 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 9 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is declining more than 2 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling almost 8 percent, Screen Holdings is losing almost 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is declining more than 4 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is slipping more than 2 percent and Mizuho Financial is declining more than 3 percent.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is declining 3.5 percent and Panasonic is losing 2.5 percent, while Canon and Sony are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.
Among other major losers, Hitachi Construction Machinery is plummeting more than 10 percent and Socionext is plunging more than 9 percent, while Disco, Furukawa Electric and Mitsui Kinzoku are tumbling more than 7 percent each. Japan Steel Works and Fujikura are sliding more than 6 percent each. Sumco is sliding almost 6 percent, while Taiyo Yuden, Yaskawa Electric, Renesas Electronics and Lasertec are declining more than 5 percent each. Resonac Holdings is down almost 5 percent.
Conversely, NSK and NH Foods are soaring almost 12 percent each, while Nintendo is surging more than 7 percent. Toyota Tsusho is gaining almost 5 percent, while Hino Motors, Yamaha, Nomura Research Institute and Nidec are adding more than 3 percent each. Central Japan Railway, Japan Airlines and Nitori Holdings are up almost 3 percent each.
In economic news, members of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Meeting agreed that the country was continuing to see economic recovery, although some downside risks remain, minutes from the central bank's monetary policy meeting on September 17-18 revealed on Wednesday.
At the meeting, the Japanese central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent, as expected, but surprised markets with a decision to reduce the holdings of its massive stock of exchange-traded funds, suggesting that the monetary policy normalization is underway.
Meanwhile, the monetary base in Japan tumbled 7.9 percent on year in October, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday - coming in at 616.598 trillion yen. That was well shy of expectations for a decline of 4.8 percent following the 6.1 percent drop in September. The adjusted monetary base was down an annual 17.9 percent at 618.463 trillion yen.
Banknotes in circulation fell 2.3 percent on year, while coins in circulation slipped 1.4 percent. Current account balances stumbled 9.1 percent on year, including a 7.6 percent drop in reserve balances.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 153 yen-range on Wednesday.
On the Wall Street, stocks staged a recovery attempt an early slump on Tuesday but showed a notable move back to the downside over the course of the trading session. The major averages all moved lower on the day following the mixed performance seen during trading on Monday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a particularly steep loss on the day, plunging 486.09 points or 2.0 percent to 23,348.64. The S&P 500 also slumped 80.42 points or 1.2 percent to 6,771.55, while the narrower Dow slid 251.44 points or 0.5 percent to 47,085.24.
Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. The German DAX Index declined by 0.8 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.5 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the downtrend and inched up by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil prices declined sharply on Tuesday due to excess supply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.44 or 0.72 percent at $60.61 per barrel.
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