(RTTNews) - Tracking the overnight decline on Wall Street, the Japanese stock market drifted lower on Tuesday with stocks cutting across various sectors reeling under selling pressure.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which opened nearly 80 points down at 10,283 and drifted down to 10,225, is currently trading at 10,215, down 147.6 points, or 1.43%, from its previous close.

Steel, non-ferrous metals, machinery, electric machinery, textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals stocks are mostly trading lower. Shares of retail houses, securities firms and trading companies are also mostly down in the red.

Among bank stocks, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Resona Holdings, Sumitomo Trust and Banking and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are trading notably lower.

In the automobile space, Suzuki Motor, Honda Motor, Toyota Motor and Mitsubishi Motors are exhibiting weakness.

Shares of food major Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd., are gaining over 2% following an announcement from the company that it will shut down two domestic plants by next October, based on the brewery’s 2010-2012 medium-term management plan.

Mitsubishi Rayon declined nearly 3% on reports the firm likely booked a group net loss of 9.8 billion yen in the April-September half, worse than the previously projected 7 billion deficit. The firm booked a 126 million group net profit in the same period last year.

Hitachi is gaining over 4% following an announcement from the company that it will likely book a group net loss of 230 billion yen in the year ending March, lower than the previously projected 270 billion yen loss. The firm booked a 787.3 billion yen group net loss in fiscal 2008.

Shares of Fujifilm Holdings Corp. are up over 5% on reports the firm likely saw a group operating loss of 8 billion yen in the six months through September, significantly lower than the 43.9 billion yen loss in the previous half.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 92 yen range early Tuesday, little changed from its late Monday quotes in New York. In early trades, the dollar fetched 92.19-92.21 yen against Monday’s close of 92.13-92.23 yen in New York and 91.83-91.85 yen in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 92.08 to the U.S. dollar.

Among other stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea are trading sharply lower. Singapore and Taiwan are also down in the red with notable losses. Most of the markets in the region had ended higher on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave up early gains and declined sharply on Monday amid a considerable pullback in the financial and commodity sectors. While early strength came as traders reacted positively to the latest batch of earnings news and optimism about the third quarter GDP report, some negative analyst comments about the financial sector hurt sentiment during the later part of the session.

The Dow closed with a loss of 104.2, or 1.1%, at 9,867.96, the Nasdaq declined 12.6 points, or 0.6%, to 2,141.8, and the S&P 500 ended down 12.7 points, or 1.2%, at 1,066.9.

Major European markets retreated by notable margins on Monday, with the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index falling by 1%, while the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index both closed down by 1.7%.

Crude oil prices plunged away from a yearly high on Monday as global equities fell, raising concerns over the economy. A stronger U.S. dollar also lessened oil’s hedge value. Light sweet crude for December delivery fell to US$78.68, down US$1.82 on the session.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Eurozone, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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