Stocks drifted lower in early trades in the Japanese market on Friday with a flat lead from Wall Street and profit taking after recent gains contributing to the decline. Despite staging a recovery subsequently, the market faltered again and is currently trading weak amid cautious moves.
Automobile stocks are finding good support even as stocks from banking, chemicals, steel and non-ferrous metals sections are trading weak. Electric power, mining and oil stocks are trading mixed.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which recovered to 8877.5 after an early setback, is currently down 29.6 points or 0.3 percent at 8,847.2.
Sony Corp. shares are up nearly 10 percent despite the company forecasting a 220 billion yen net loss for financial year 2011.
Mitsumi Electric Co. shares are up more than 9 percent. Hitachi is gaining 7.3 percent and Minebea is trading stronger by about 6.6 percent. Canon Inc. shares gained over 2.5 percent following a share buy-back announcement from the company.
Sumco, Panasonic Corp., Mitsubishi Paper, Mitsubishi Materials, Advantest, Matsui Securities, Dai-ichi Life and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are up 1 to 3 percent.
Automobile stocks Mazda Motor, Toyota Motor and Mitsubishi Motor are up 1.3 to 2.3 percent. Suzuki Motor and Nissan Motor are also trading notably higher.
Shares of Nippon Sheet Glass plunged more than 11 percent in early trading following weak earnings forecast, and is still down in the red with a sharp loss.
Yamaha Corp. shares are down as much as 6.5 percent. Mitsui Mining, Daiichi Sankyo, Sharp Corp, Unitika, Fujikura, Pacific Metals and Softbank are down 2 to 2.5 percent.
Sumitomo Chemicals, Chugai Pharma, Nisshin Steel, Kobe Steel, Mitsui OSK Lines, Asahi Glass, Shinsei Bank, Nippon Steel and Casio Computer are also trading notably lower.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 76 yen range in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 76.23 to the U.S. dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan are trading modestly lower. New Zealand and Singapore are up with modest gains. Markets across the region closed mostly higher on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks turned in a lackluster performance on Thursday with traders seemingly reluctant to make any significant moves ahead of Friday's jobs report.
The major averages closed on opposite sides of the unchanged line, with the Dow posting a modest loss. While the Dow edged down by about 11 points or 0.1 percent to 12,705.4, the Nasdaq rose 11.4 points or 0.4 percent to 2,859.7 and the S&P 500 inched up 1.4 points or 0.1 percent to 1,325.5.
Major European markets moved higher on Thursday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index edged up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index gained 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Thursday, extending losses for a fifth straight day, due to demand concerns after U.S. oil stockpiles increased more than expected last week. Light sweet crude for March delivery dipped $1.25 or 1.3 percent to settle at $96.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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