Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is notably higher on Friday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 37,250 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 280.22 points or 0.76 percent to 37,266.09, after hitting a low of 37,126.60 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Thursday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 1 percdent and Screen Holdings is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.4 percent.

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

Among other major gainers, Japan Steel Works is soaring more than 8 percent and Sumitomo Electric Industries is surging more than 7 percent, while Fujikura and Fujitsu are gaining almost 4 percent each. Renesas Electronics and BANDAI NAMCO are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, consumer prices in Japan were up 3.6 percent on year in April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday - in line with expectations and unchanged from the March reading. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.4 percent - again, in line with expectations and accelerating slightly from 0.3 percent in the previous month.

Core consumer prices were up 3.5 percent on year, exceeding expectations for an increase of 3.4 percent and up from 3.2 percent a month earlier. On a monthly basis, core CPI was up 0.2 percent, easing from 0.3 percent in April.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 143 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on the Thursday but gave back ground in the latter part of the session to close roughly flat. The major averages pulled back well off their highs in the final hour of trading before closing narrowly mixed.

While the Nasdaq rose 53.09 points or 0.3 percent to 18,925.73, the Dow edged down 1.35 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 41,859.09 and the S&P 500 slipped 2.60 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,842.01.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both declined by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices saw further downside on Thursday after reports suggested that OPEC members are discussing a third consecutive oil production surge in July. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery slid $0.37 or 0.6 percent to $61.20 a barrel.