TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably lower on Wednesday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 53,000 mark, with weakness in index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 365.66 or 0.69 percent at 52,967.88, after hitting a low of 52,788.10 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent and Toyota is losing almost 3 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.4 percent, while Screen Holdings is adding almost 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 1 percent.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing more than 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is flat.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 2 percent, Sony is losing almost 2 percent, Panasonic is slipping almost 3 percent and Canon is down almost 1 percent.
Among other major losers, Shin-Etsu Chemical is plunging almost 10 percent, Shin-Etsu Chemical is slipping more than 7 percent and Sumco is tumbling more than 6 percent, while Sumitomo Pharma and Daiichi Sankyo are losing more than 4 percent each. SHIFT, Mazda Motor and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are declining almost 4 percent each, while Kyowa Kirin, IHI, Isuzu Motors and Sompo Holdings are sliding more than 3 percent each. Seiko Epson is down almost 3 percent.
Conversely, Fujikura and Furukawa Electric are soaring more than 10 percent each, while Sumitomo Electric Industries is surging almost 6 percent and Renesas Electronics is gaining almost 5 percent.
In economic news, members of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Board said that Japan's economy has recovered moderately, although some weakness remains, minutes from the central bank's meeting on Dec. 17-18 revealed on Wednesday.
At the meeting, the BoJ raised its benchmark rate by a quarter-point as inflation remains stubbornly above the target. The policy board decided to hike the uncollateralized overnight call rate to around 0.75 percent from around 0.5 percent. Previously, the BoJ had lifted the benchmark rate by 25 basis points in January.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 152 yen-range on Wednesday.
On the Wall Street, stock indexes moved in starkly opposite directions during trading on Tuesday following the upward move seen in the previous session. While the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 saw further upside, the narrower Dow showed a notable pullback.
The Nasdaq jumped 215.74 points or 0.9 percent to a nearly three-month closing high of 23,817.10, and the S&P 500 climbed 28.37 points or 0.4 percent to a record closing high of 6,978.60. Meanwhile, the Dow ended the day off its worst levels of the session but still closed down 408.99 points or 0.8 percent at 49,003.41.
The major European markets also ended the day narrowly mixed. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, although the German DAX Index bucked the uptrend and dipped by 0.2 percent.
Crude oil prices soared on Tuesday as U.S. naval forces have started building up near Iran, while Lebanese and Yemeni militias have pledged support to Iran, leading to a heightening of tensions. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $1.61 or 2.66 percent at $62.24 per barrel.
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