Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably higher on Wednesday, snapping the three-session losing-streak, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up well above the 39,200 level, with gains in some index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 239.89 or 0.61 percent at 39,256.76, after touching a high of 39,448.24 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent, while Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest, Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging down 0.1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is advancing more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.5 percent and Sony is advancing more than 3 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent and Panasonic is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and IHI are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Nomura Research Institute, TDK Nitto Denko, Trend Micro and Furukawa Electric are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nisshin Seifun is losing more than 3 percent and Disco is declining almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Tuesday after seeing considerable weakness in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher after posting a particularly steep loss on Monday.

The Nasdaq surged 391.75 points or 2.0 percent to 19,733.59, partly offsetting the 3.1 percent plunge seen during yesterday's session. The S&P 500 also jumped 55.42 points or 0.9 percent to 6,067.70, while the narrower Dow rose 136.77 points or 0.3 percent to 44,850.35.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index slipped 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.4 percent and the German DAX Index climbed 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday amid disruptions to supply from Libya as protesters prevented tankers from loading at the country's two major ports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed higher by $0.60 or about 0.82 percent at $73.77 a barrel.