(RTTNews) – The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei index above the 28,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders remain concerned about the pace of the economic recovery from the pandemic as the new coronavirus Omicorn variant spreads to about 40 countries, with some domestic cases as well.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 123.94 points or 0.43 percent to 28,516.55, after hitting a low of 28,510.39 earlier. Japanese shares closed notably higher on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is adding more than 2 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Screen Holdings is down almost 1 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are flat, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.2 percent.
The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic is losing more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.4 percent, while Canon is edging up 0.2 percent. Sony is flat.
Among the other major losers, Tokyu, M3, ANA Holdings, Casio Computer, NTN, IHI and NSK are all losing almost 2 percent each.
Conversely, Shinsei Bank is gaining more than 4 percent and Tokio Marine Holdings is adding almost 3 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 113 yen-range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved notably lower during trading on Monday, giving back ground following the rally seen on Wall Street last week. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the drop.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 fell to new lows for the session going into the close of trading. The Dow slumped 320.04 points or 0.9 percent to 35,650.95, the Nasdaq plunged 217.32 points or 1.4 percent to 15,413.28 and the S&P 500 tumbled 43.05 points or 0.9 percent to 4,668.97.
The major European markets also showed strong moves to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index closed just below the unchanged line, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures settled lower on Monday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid worries about the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $0.38 or 0.5 percent at $71.29 a barrel.