Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 moving above the 28,100 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight and as traders reacted to the government further easing its COVID-19 border control measures and increasing the cap on tourist entries.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 81.81 points or 0.29 percent to 28,147.09, after touching a high of 28,286.02 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding almost 1 percent and Toyota is flat.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Screen Holdings is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is flat, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.3 percent, while Panasonic and Sony are losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Dowa Holdings is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, there are no major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 144 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw significant volatility during trading on Thursday, with the major averages showing wild swings before eventually the day firmly positive. With the upward move on the day, the major averages extended the recovery rally seen in the previous session.

The major averages continued to recover after ending Tuesday's trading at their lowest closing levels in over a month. The Dow climbed 193.24 points or 0.6 percent to 31,774.52, the Nasdaq rose 70.23 points or 0.6 percent to 11,862.13 and the S&P 500 advanced 26.31 points or 0.7 percent to 4,006.18.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both climbed by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher Thursday following Russia's threat to halt oil and gas exports to some buyers. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.60 or 2 percent at $83.54 a barrel.