Japanese Market Sharply Higher In Post-holiday Trading

(RTTNews) - In post-holiday trading, the Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Tuesday, recouping the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 surging above the 31,700 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 716.19 points or 2.31 percent at 31,710.86, after touching a high of 31,748.32 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Friday prior to the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 3 percent and Toyota is adding almost 2 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are adding more than 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Canon and Sony are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Panasonic is adding almost 4 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is advancing almost 3 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Inpex is skyrocketing almost 10 percent, Sojitz is soaring almost 9 percent, Itochu is surging more than 7 percent and ENEOS Holdings is advancing almost 7 percent, while Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Idemitsu Kosan are gaining more than 6 percent each. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, JGC Holdings, Pacific Metals and Fujikura are adding almost 6 percent each, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is rising more than 5 percent. Mitsui & Co., Citizen Watch and Marubeni are up almost 5 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, Japan posted a current account surplus of 2.279 trillion yen in August, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday. That was shy of expectations for a surplus of 3.091 trillion yen following the 2.771 trillion yen surplus in July.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 148 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks recovered and climbed higher on Monday and eventually ended the day's session on a fairly firm note after staying weak till about an hour past noon. Energy stocks gained as oil prices surged amid concerns about potential disruptions in supply due to the conflict in the Middle East.

The major averages all ended higher. The Dow settled with a gain of 197.07 points or 0.59 percent at 33,604.65, the S&P 500 ended higher by 27.16 points or 0.63 percent at 4,335.66 and the Nasdaq ended with a gain of 52.90 points or 0.39 percent at 13,484.24.

Meanwhile, the major European markets closed weak on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down 0.03 percent, Germany's DAX dropped 0.67 percent and France's CAC 40 declined 0.55 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid concerns about disruptions to global oil supplies due to rising tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November spiked $3.59 or 4.3 percent at $86.38 a barrel.