Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 52,150 level, with gains across most sectors led by financial and automaker stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 337.68 points or 0.65 percent at 52,170.48, after touching a high of 52,456.03 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is up more than 1 percent and Toyota is gaining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Advantest are edging up 0.2 percent each.

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

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are gaining 1.5 percent each, while Sony is edging up 0.1 percent. Canon is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Mitsubishi Materials is jumping more than 7 percent, while Sumco and Sumitomo Metal Mining are surging more than 6 percent each. IHI, Denka and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are gaining almost 5 percent each. Hitachi, ENEOS Holdings, SHIFT, Japan Post Holdings, Chiba Bank, NEC, Dowa Holdings and Resona Holdings are advancing more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, Chubu Electric Power is tumbling more than 7 percent, Otsuka Holdings is losing almost 4 percent, Sumitomo Electric Industries is declining more than 3 percent and Chugai Pharmaceutical is down almost 3 percent.

In economic news, the monetary base in Japan dropped 9.8 percent on year in December, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday - coming in at 594.194 trillion yen. That missed expectations for a fall of 8.0 percent following the 8.5 percent drop in November.

Banknotes in circulation fell 2.7 percent on year, while coins in circulation slipped 1.3 percent. Current account balances stumbled an annual 11.5 percent, including a 9.9 percent decline in reserve balances.

For the fourth quarter of 2025, the monetary base slumped 8.7 percent on year; for the whole year, the base fell 4.9 percent.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Monday, regaining ground following the slump seen during holiday-interrupted previous week. The major averages all moved to the upside, with the Dow reaching a new record closing high.

The major averages finished the day off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Dow jumped 594.79 points or 1.2 percent to 48,977.18, the Nasdaq advanced 160.19 points or 0.7 percent to 23,395.82 and the S&P 500 climbed 43.58 points or 0.6 percent to 6,902.05.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index shot up by 1.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.5 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Monday after OPEC reaffirmed its plans to pause production increases for early 2026, thereby allaying oversupply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was up $58.31 or 0.99 percent at $1.73 per barrel.