Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Thursday ahead of the holiday on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 moving a tad above the 53,450 level, with gains across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 327.07 points or 0.62 percent at 53,450.56, after touching a high of 53,567.70 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent, while Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is adding more than 2 percent, Screen Holdings is advancing almost 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are lower. Panasonic is gaining almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 1 percent and Canon is up almost 1 percent, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, ARCHION and Ibiden are surging more than 5 percent each, while Lasertec and Dentsu Group are gaining almost 5 percent each. JGC Holdings, Furukawa Electric, Kirin Holdings, Sharp and Sumitomo Electric Industries are adding almost 4 percent each. Taiyo Yuden is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, T&D Holdings is tumbling almost 8 percent and Kansai Electric Power is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 159 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks recovered from a sharp pullback early in the session on Thursday but showed a lack of direction over the remainder of the trading day. The major averages spent much of the day lingering near the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Dow edged down 61.07 points or 0.1 percent to 46,504.67, the S&P 500 crept up 7.37 points or 0.1 percent to 6,582.69 and the Nasdaq rose 38.23 points or 0.2 percent to 21,879.18.

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the German DAX Index fell by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices catapulted Thursday on concerns of supply disruptions following Trump's address. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up $11.94 or 11.93 percent at $112.06 per barrel.