The Japanese stock market experienced a significant decline on Thursday, following negative cues from global markets. The Nikkei 225 fell just below the 33,000 mark, with losses observed across most sectors, particularly in technology and financial stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index dropped by 1.02 percent or 340.99 points to reach 32,997.71. Japanese stocks had already closed slightly lower on the previous day.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group suffered a loss of more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing declined by almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota saw a slight increase of 0.5 percent, while Honda experienced a marginal decrease of 0.1 percent.
In the technology sector, Screen Holdings declined by almost 2 percent, Tokyo Electron dropped by over 3 percent, and Advantest experienced a nearly 3 percent decrease.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial both saw a decrease of 0.3 to 0.5 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial suffered a loss of almost 1 percent.
Among the major exporters, Panasonic and Canon each gained almost 1 percent, while Sony decreased by approximately 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric slipped by 0.4 percent.
The market also witnessed notable losses in other sectors, including a nearly 4 percent decline for Renesas Electronics and a drop of more than 3 percent for Daikin Industries. Additionally, Dowa Holdings, Yaskawa Electric, and TDK all experienced losses of around 3 percent.
On the other hand, Kobe Steel saw significant gains of almost 5 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar was trading in the lower 144 yen-range on Thursday.
The previous day, Wall Street closed with a sense of weakness, although technology stocks briefly showed improvements in the mid-morning. Lingering concerns about the impact of rising interest rates on economic growth played a role in the cautious mood among investors. The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting were also being closely watched.
The major U.S. indexes all closed modestly lower. The Dow ended the day with a loss of 129.83 points or 0.38 percent, settling at 34,288.64. The S&P 500 saw a loss of 8.77 points or 0.2 percent, bringing it to 4,446.82, while the Nasdaq closed lower by 25.12 points or 0.18 percent at 13,791.65.
Similarly, major European markets experienced declines. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped by 1.03 percent, Germany’s DAX decreased by 0.63 percent, and France’s CAC 40 drifted down by 0.8 percent. The pan European Stoxx 600 lost 0.73 percent.
In other news, crude oil futures settled significantly higher on Wednesday due to a noticeable increase in U.S. crude shipments revealed by government data. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended the day higher by $2.00 or 2.9 percent, reaching $71.79 per barrel.
