Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Wednesday, adding to the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 39,000 mark, with gains across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 564.57 or 1.47 percent at 39,039.47, after touching a high of 39,040.77 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing more than 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are advancing almost 4 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining more than 1 percent, Canon is edging up 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is advancing almost 2 percent, while Panasonic are edging down 0.3 percent.

Among other major gainers, DeNA, IHI and Resona Holdings are gaining more than 5 percent each, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries is adding almost 5 percent. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, TDK, CyberAgent and Japan Steel Works are adding more than 4 percent each, while Tosoh, Isetan Mitsukoshi, J. Front Retailing and Yamaha are advancing almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, Mercari is plummeting more than 14 percent and Konica Minolta is declining more than 3 percent.

In economic news, he Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its September 19-20 monetary policy meeting. At the meeting, the BoJ kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.25 percent, as widely expected. The BoJ ended its negative interest rate policy in March.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 152 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of Monday's session before closing moderately lower but showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq helped lead the way higher.

The major averages ended the day off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Nasdaq surged 259.19 points or 1.4 percent to 18,439.17, the S&P 500 shot up 70.07 points or 1.2 percent to 5,782.76 and the Dow jumped 427.28 points or 1.0 percent to 42,221.88.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. The German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.5 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session as traders reacted positively to OPEC's decision to delay production increases, while a weaker dollar also supported prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $0.52 or 0.73 percent at $71.99 a barrel.