Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading modestly higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 65,750 level, with gains in index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 234.89 points or 0.36 percent to 65,748.88, after touching high of 65,931.29 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is slipping more than 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is up almost 1 percent, while Honda is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent, Screen Holdings is adding more than 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are advancing almost 3 percent, while Mizuho Financial is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent, while Sony is gaining more than 1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.2 percent. Panasonic is flat.

Among other major gainers, Lasertec is advancing almost 4 percent, while Ibiden and Resona Holdings are gaining more than 3 percent each. Komatsu, Fuji Electric, Fukuoka Financial and Shizuoka Financial are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Shimizu is tumbling almost 7 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 158 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a notable recovery attempt over the course of the trading day on Thursday after showing a significant move to the downside early in the session. The major averages climbed well off their lows of the session, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 closing roughly flat.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 3.34 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 26,939.37, while the S&P 500 edged down 1.90 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 7,704.13. The narrower Dow climbed well off its worst levels but still closed down 161.61 points or 0.3 percent at 51,349.98.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is just below the unchanged line, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both down by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices could not hold an early spike on Thursday but still managed to finish significantly higher, thanks to a lack of clarity about peace talks in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $2.58 or 2.8 percent to finish at $94.74 a barrel.