TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is modestly lower in choppy trading on Wednesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling just below the 27,800 level, despite the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, as traders reacted to disappointing quarterly results from some major companies.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 75.93 points or 0.27 percent at 27,796.18, after hitting a low of 27,783.70 and a high of 27,926.52 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.2 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.5 percent.
In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 1 percent, Advantest is advancing more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 2 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.1 percent.
Among the major exporters, Sony is losing almost 1 percent, Canon is edging down 0.2 percent and Panasonic is declining more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent.
Among the other major losers, Furukawa Electric is plunging almost 9 percent, while Sapporo Holdings and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is sliding almost 5 percent each. Suzuki Motor and Taiyo Yuden are losing more than 4 percent each, while M3 is declining almost 4 percent, while Sumco and Yamato Holdings are down more than 3 percent each. Rakuten, Murata Manufacturing and Toho Zinc are slipping almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, GS Yuasa is soaring almost 8 percent and Nintendo is surging more than 6 percent, NEXON is gaining almost 5 percent and Daikin Industries is adding more than 4 percent, while Hitachi Zosen and Mitsubishi Motors are advancing almost 4 percent each. Kyowa Kirin, Denka, DeNA and Inpex are adding more than 3 percent each, while Mitsui Fudosan is up almost 3 percent.
In economic news, overall bank lending in Japan was up 2.7 percent on year in October, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday, coming in at 593.084 trillion yen. That follows the 2.3 percent increase in September. Excluding trusts, lending rose an annual 3.0 percent to 516.328 trillion yen, while lending from trusts rose 0.6 percent to 76.755 trillion yen.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 145 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside in morning trading on Tuesday before pulling back sharply in the early afternoon. The major averages once again benefited from late-day strength, however, closing firmly in positive territory.
The Dow jumped 333.83 points or 1.0 percent to 33,160.83, ending the session at its best closing level in well over two months. The Nasdaq also climbed 51.68 points or 0.5 percent to 10,616.20, while the S&P 500 advanced 21.31 points or 0.6 percent to 3,828.11.
The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Tuesday as reports showing a surge in COVID-19 cases in China raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended lower by $2.88 or 3.1 percent at $88.91 a barrel.
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