Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 70,150 level, with gains in automakers, financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 207.71 points or 0.30 percent at 70,154.57, after touching a high of 70,416.78 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.5 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.3 percent.

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

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

Among the other major gainers, Mitsui Kinzoku is advancing more than 4 percent, while Isetan Mitsukoshi and Fujikura are gaining more than 3 percent each. Shionogi & Co. is gaining almost 3 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 157 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a strong performance throughout much of the trading session on Monday before giving back some ground going into the end of the day. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a strong move to the upside, reaching a new record closing high.

The major averages ended the day off their highs of the session but still in positive territory. The Nasdaq jumped 286.45 points or 1.1 percent to 27,477.31, the S&P 500 advanced 51.23 points or 0.7 percent to 7,773.95 and the Dow rose 90.94 points or 0.2 percent to 51,267.90.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Monday amid indications that exports from the Middle East are returning to pre-war levels despite the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate for November delivery sank $1.21 or 1.3 percent to $89.90 a barrel.