Japanese Market Sharply Higher; Up 2.5%

(RTTNews) - Adding to the gains in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is sharply higher in post-holiday trading on Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 is surging more than 2.5 percent to above the 35,900 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with strong gains across all the sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 897.03 points or 2.56 percent at 35,922.03, after touching a high of 36,025.92 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher Friday prior to the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is adding more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are surging almost 6 percent each, while Screen Holdings is advancing more than 6 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is advancing almost 4 percent. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is flat.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is edging down 0.2 percent and Sony is gaining more than 5 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 4 percent and Canon is up almost 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Rakuten Group is skyrocketing more than 9 percent and Trend Micro is soaring more than 8 percent, while Ebara and Sompo Holdings are surging more than 7 percent each. Keyence, Tokio Marine and Odakyu Electric Railway are gaining almost 7 percent each. Nitto Denko, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, TDK and IHI are adding more than 6 percent each, while Socionext and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are advancing almost 6 percent each.

Conversely, Sharp is plunging more than 6 percent, while Yamato Holdings and Meiji Holdings are losing more than 4 percent each. Nippon Express is down almost 4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 147 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Monday before eventually ending the day little changed. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line and finished the session narrowly mixed.

While the Dow dipped 140.53 points or 0.4 percent to 39,357.01, the S&P 500 inched up 0.23 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,344.39 and the Nasdaq rose 35.31 points or 0.2 percent to 16,780.61.

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index closed just above the unchanged line and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Monday as possibility of disruptions in supply due to escalating tensions in the Middle East outweighed OPEC's monthly report that lowered the demand forecast for 2024. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $3.22 or about 4.2 percent at $80.06 a barrel.