Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably higher on Wednesday, extending the gains in the previous seven sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 33,100 level, despite the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with gains across most sectors, led by exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 116.44 or 0.35 percent at 33,153.20, after touching a high of 32,279.00 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Screen Holdings and Advantest are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is adding almost 1 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Sony is adding almost 2 percent. Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Mitsui E&S is surging almost 5 percent and Mazda Motor is gaining more than 4 percent, while Pacific Metals and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are adding almost 4 percent each. JTEKT and Concordia Financial are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

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

On the Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Tuesday, after posting some strong gains last week. The major averages all ended in negative territory, although the Nasdaq managed to see a few brief spells above the flat line.

The Dow ended with a loss of 195.74 points or 0.56 percent at 34,641.97. The S&P 500 settled lower by 18.94 points or 0.42 percent at 4,496.83, while the Nasdaq finished with a marginal loss of 10.86 points or 0.08 percent at 14,020.95.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index ended down 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 both ended lower by 0.34 percent. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.23 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia and Russia announced they will extend their voluntary production cuts by three months. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.14 or about 1.3 percent at $86.69 a barrel.