Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, giving up the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 losing almost 600 point to fall below the 26,000 mark, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders booked profits after the recent gains and amid the continued escalation of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Traders are also concerned about the sudden spike in daily new domestic cornovirus cases after the recent steady decline. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government will extend its COVID-19 pre-emergency designations for 18 prefectures by two weeks until March 21. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 588.44 points or 2.21 percent to 25,988.