Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Tuesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 49,450 level, with gains in financial and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in automakers and exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 159.33 points or 0.32 percent at 49,462.61, after touching a high of 49,623.87 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent and Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron, Screen Holdings and Advantest are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are all gaining more than 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent and Sony is edging down 0.1 percent, while Canon is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Fanuc is jumping more than 8 percent, NGK Insulators is surging almost 6 percent and Yaskawa Electric is gaining more than 4 percent, while Sumitomo Electric Industries and Shizuoka Financial are advancing more than 3 percent each. Lasertec and Sumco are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Isetan Mitsukoshi and BayCurrent are losing almost 4 percent each, while Tokyo Electric Power, Sumitomo Pharma and Mitsui Fudosan are declining almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, the monetary base in Japan was down 8.5 percent on year in November, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday - coming in at 612.686 trillion yen. That was in line with expectations following the upwardly revised 7.8 percent contraction in October (originally -7.9 percent).

Banknotes in circulation were down 2.5 percent on year, while coins in circulation slipped an annual 1.4 percent. Current account balances slumped 9.9 percent on year, including an 8.0 percent drop in reserve balances. The adjusted monetary base was down 7.1 percent on year at 614.655 trillion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155-yen range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks staged a recovery attempt in mid-day trading on Monday after coming under pressure early in the session, but moved back to the downside as the day progressed. The major averages all finished the session firmly in negative territory.

The Dow slumped 427.09 points or 0.9 percent to 47,289.33, the Nasdaq fell 89.76 points or 0.4 percent to 23,275.92 and the S&P 500 slid 36.46 points or 0.5 percent to 6,812.63.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped by 1.0 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Monday as the U.S. dollar came under pressure amid rate cut expectations. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.75 or 1.28 percent at $59.30 per barrel.