Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Tuesday, reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 moving well above the 40,400 level, with small gains across most sectors led by exporters, automakers and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 151.31 points or 0.38 percent at 40,442.01, after touching a high of 40,600.36 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.5 percent and Toyota is also edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 2 percent, while Advantest is edging down 0.4 percent and Tokyo Electron is down almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 1 percent, while Panasonic and Sony are gaining almost 1 percent each. Canon is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, NTN is skyrocketing more than 16 percent, Tokyo Electric Power is soaring more than 8 percent, Furukawa Electric is surging 5.5 percent and Fuji Electric is gaining more than 4 percent, while Kansai Electric Power and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are adding almost 4 percent. Fujikura advancing more than 3 percent and Sumitomo Electric Industries is up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, LY is plunging more than 10 percent, while Ajinomoto and Nitori Holdings are losing almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, members of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Board felt that the country's economic recovery is continuing at an acceptable pace, minutes from the central bank's June 16-17 monetary policy meeting revealed on Tuesday - although it is starting to show signs of slowing.

At the meeting, the Bank of Japan decided to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent and to reduce the pace of the amount of bond purchases from April next year amid rising uncertainties in financial markets and global trade policies.

The amount will be cut by around JPY 400 billion each calendar year until January-March 2026, and by about JPY 200 billion each calendar quarter from April-June 2026.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the 147 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher early in the session on Monday and continued to turn in a strong performance throughout the day. With the upward move, the major averages offset a large chunk of the notable pullback seen over the two previous sessions.

The major averages saw further upside going into the close, ending the day just off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq surged 403.45 points or 2.0 percent to 21,053.58, the S&P 500 shot up 91.93 points or 1.5 percent to 6,329.94 and the Dow jumped 585.06 points or 1.3 percent to 44,173.64.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index shot up by 1.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index increased by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices continued to decline on Monday thanks to oversupply concerns and fears of a tariff-induced slowdown by the global economy. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.06 or 1.57 percent at $66.27 per barrel.