Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably higher on Wednesday, extending the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 27,400 level, despite the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, aided by gains in technology stocks. Traders also reacted to domestic data that showed a record current account deficit in January.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 107.81 or 0.38 percent at 28,416.97, after touching a high of 28,431.15 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing 1.5 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.5 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 2 percent, Advantest is adding more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are all edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Canon, Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Sony is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, NTN is gaining more than 3 percent and JTEKT is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Nissan Motor is losing more than 3 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining is declining almost 3 percent.

In economic news, overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.3 percent on year in February, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday - coming in at 598.927 billion yen. That's up from the 3.1 percent increase in January.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 137 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Tuesday with remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell renewing concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside after ending Monday's trading narrowly mixed.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels late in the session but still posted steep losses. The Dow plunged 574.98 points or 1.7 percent at 32,856.46, the Nasdaq tumbled 145.40 points or 1.3 percent to 11,530.33 and the S&P 500 dove 62.05 points or 1.5 percent to 3,986.37.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside over the course of the session. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices tumbled Tuesday on renewed uncertainty about energy demand, while a surging greenback also weighed on the commodity. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April slumped $2.88 or 3.6 percent at $77.58 a barrel.