Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably higher in post-holiday trading on Tuesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 57,200 level, with gains in automaker stocks partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 376.03 points or 0.66 percent at 57,201.73, after touching a high of 57,286.65 and a low of 56,732.93 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Friday ahead of the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Advantest is adding almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are declining almost 3 percent each.

The major exporters are mixed. Panasonic is losing more than 1 percent and Sony is edging down 0.4 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is advancing more than 1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Furukawa Electric is jumping more than 10 percent, Fujikura is soaring more than 8 percent, Sumitomo Electric Industries is surging almost 8 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining is advancing more than 6 percent, while Murata Manufacturing and Ibiden are higher almost 6 percent each. SMC and Taiyo Yuden are gaining almost 5 percent each. Shiseido and Lasertec are adding more than 4 percent each, while Kubota, Daiichi Sankyo, Hoya and Yokogawa Electric are up almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, BayCurrent is tumbling more than 13 percent, Trend Micro is plunging almost 12 percent and Sumitomo Pharma is sliding more than 9 percent, while SHIFT and Fujitsu are sliding more than 6 percent each. Nomura Research Institute is declining almost 6 percent, while Sharp, NEC and Aozora Bank are losing almost 5 percent each. Yokohama Rubber and Mitsubishi Motors are down more than 4 percent each, while Chiba Bank, Dai-ichi Life and Fukuoka Financial are slipping almost 4 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 154-yen range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Monday after turning in a strong performance last week. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside, with the Dow tumbling to its lowest closing level in a month.

The major averages ended the day off their lows of the session but still firmly negative. The Dow slumped 821.91 points or 1.7 percent to 48,804.06, the Nasdaq slid 258.80 points or 1.1 percent to 22,627.27 and the S&P 500 declined 71.76 points or 1.0 percent to 6,837.75.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DX Index slumped 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices sputtered on Monday as demand concerns reappeared following the uncertainty generated by the tariff issues. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery slipped $0.10 or 0.15 percent to $66.38 per barrel.