TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Wednesday, extending the sharp losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is tumbling 2.4 percent to well below the 54,950 level, with weakness in across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,356.12 or 2.41 percent at 54,922.93, after hitting a low of 54,549.32 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is declining almost 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is declining more than 3 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, Screen Holdings is slipping almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is declining almost 3 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is slipping almost 5 percent, Mizuho Financial is declining more than 3 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 3 percent.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is slipping almost 3 percent, Canon is down almost 1 percent, Panasonic is declining almost 2 percent and Sony is gaining more than 2 percent.
Among other major losers, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsui Kinzoku are plummeting more than 8 percent each, while ENEOS and Sojitz are plunging more than 7 percent each. IHI, Nippon Electric Glass, Marubeni, Dowa Holdings and Mitsubishi Materials are tumbling almost 7 percent each. Mitsui & Co., NSK, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, JGC Holdings and Toyota Tsusho are slipping almost 7 percent each, while Sumitomo Heavy Industries is declining almost 6 percent.
Conversely, BayCurrent is gaining almost 5 percent, while Trend Micro and Toho are advancing almost 3 percent each.
In economic news, the services sector in Japan continued to expand in February, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Wednesday with a services PMI score of 53.8. That's up from 53.7 in January, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the composite index improved to 53.9 in February from 53.1 in January.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 157 yen-range on Wednesday.
On the Wall Street, stocks once again staged a recovery attempt after another sell-off at the start of trading on Tuesday, but did have as much success as Monday and still ended the day notably lower. While the major averages climbed well off their worst levels of the day, they remained firmly in negative territory.
The Dow ended the day down 403.51 points or 0.8 percent at 48,502.27 after plummeting by more than 1,200 points, the Nasdaq slumped 232.17 points or 1.0 percent to 22,516.69 and the S&P 500 slid 64.99 points or 0.9 percent to 6,816.63.
The major European markets all also showed substantial moves to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dove by 3.5 percent, the German DAX Index plummeted by 3.4 percent, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index tumbled by 2.8 percent.
Crude oil prices continued to spike in response to the conflict, raising worries the jump in prices will lead to higher inflation. Supply concerns were also worsened by the attacks on several oil refineries, including Saudi Aramco's oil facility in Ras Tanura. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery surged $3.35 or 4.7 percent to $74.58 a barrel.
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