Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Extending the gains in the previous two sessions, the Japanese stock market is notably higher on Friday, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is moving above the 39,600 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 232.94 points or 0.59 percent to 39,613.83, after touching a high of 39,636.87 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

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

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

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining 1.5 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding more than 2 percent.

Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are losing almost 1 percent each, while Sony is more than 1 percent and Panasonic is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among other major gainers, Fujikura is adding more than 3 percent, while Dai-ichi Life Holdings and Chugai Pharmaceutical are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, the M2 money stock in Japan was up 1.3 percent on year in September, the Bank of Japan said on Friday - coming in at 1,252.0 trillion yen. That was unchanged from the August reading, although shy of forecasts for 1.5 percent. On a monthly basis, M2 was up 1.0 percent - accelerating from 0.6 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 148 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw modest weakness during trading on Thursday after turning in a strong performance in the previous session. The major averages all gave back ground, with the Dow and the S&P 500 pulling back off yesterday's record closing highs.

The major averages moved to the upside going into the close of trading but remained in the red. The Dow slipped 57.88 points or 0.1 percent to 42,454.12, the Nasdaq edged down 9.57 points or 0.1 percent to 18,282.05 and the S&P 500 dipped 11.99 points or 0.2 percent to 5,780.05.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Thursday as worries about escalating tensions in the Middle East outweighed uncertainty about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $2.61 or about 3.56 percent at $75.85 a barrel.