Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly higher in choppy trading on Friday, recouping the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 moving to nearly the 28,000 mark, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stressed the need to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy to support the economy after release of data that showed annual core consumer prices surged to a 40-year high in October.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 54.10 points or 0.19 percent to 27,984.67, after touching a high of 28,045.44. Japanese stocks closed modestly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is flat. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 1 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.3 percent, while Screen Holdings is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among major exporters, Canon and Panasonic are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are advancing almost 1 percent each. Among the other major gainers, Tokai Carbon is surging more than 5 percent and Mitsubishi Motors is gaining 4.5 percent, while Mazda Motor and Citizen Watch are adding more than 3 percent each. Isuzu Motors and Tokyo Gas are up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Rakuten Group is losing more than 3 percent and M3 is down almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 139 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks went on another wild ride over the course of the trading day on Thursday, extending the volatility seen in recent sessions. After recovering from an early sell-off, the major averages pulled back once again to end the day in negative territory.

The major averages moved back to the upside going into the close but finished the session in the red. While the Dow edged down 7.51 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 33,546.32, the Nasdaq fell 38.70 points or 0.4 percent to 11,144.96 and the S&P 500 dipped 12.23 points or 0.3 percent to 3,946.56.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned mixed over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index inched up by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Thursday, pushing the most active oil futures contract to a more than three week closing low. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended lower by $3.95 or about 4.6 percent at $81.64 a barrel.