Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably higher in post-holiday trading on Tuesday, reversing the sharp losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 49,000 mark, with gains across most sectors led by automakers and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 377.26 points or 0.78 percent at 49,003.14, after touching a high of 49,182.32 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday ahead of the holiday on Monday.

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

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 3 percent, Screen Holdings is edging up 0.2 percent and Advantest is advancing almost 5 percent.

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

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Canon is edging up 0.5 percent. Sony is losing almost 2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Sumitomo Electric Industries is jumping more than 8 percent, Toppan Holdings is soaring almost 7 percent and Ebara is surging more than 5 percent, while Fuji Electric and Eisai are gaining more than 4 percent each. Furukawa Electric and Yaskawa Electric are advancing almost 4 percent each, while Fujikura, JTEKT and Taiyo Yuden are advancing more than 3 percent each. Daiichi Sankyo, Lasertec, Tokyo Gas and Nippon Electric Glass are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Fujikura, Konami Group and Dai-ichi Life Holdings are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 156-yen range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed an even more substantial move to the upside during trading on Monday following the notable rebound seen during last Friday's session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a particularly strong upward move on the day.

The Nasdaq surged 598.92 points or 2.7 percent to 22,872.01, largely offsetting the steep drop seen last week. The S&P 500 also jumped 102.13 points or 1.6 percent to 6,705.12, while the narrower Dow posted a more modest gain, rising 202.86 points or 0.4 percent to 46,448.27.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned mixed over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Monday, supported by a positive economic outlook and more demand growth. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.73 or 1.26 percent at $58.79 per barrel.