Japanese Market Sharply Higher; Up 5%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 surging 5 percent to above the 56,950 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and exporter stocks.

The market surge comes after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, secured a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house in a historic victory. This gives the Takaichi coalition a clear mandate to pursue expansionary fiscal policies.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 2,711.89 points or 5.00 percent at 56,965.57, after touching a high of 57,337.07 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging more than 7 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is jumping almost 8 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent, while Toyota is advancing more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is soaring more than 14 percent, Screen Holdings is surging almost 6 percent and Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 2 percent.

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

The major exporters are mostly higher. Mitsubishi Electric is surging almost 6 percent, while Panasonic and Canon are advancing more than 2 percent each. Sony is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, CyberAgent is soaring almost 16 percent and Sumitomo Electric is jumping almost 11 percent, while Taiyo Yuden, Disco, Mitsui Kinzoku and Ibiden are surging almost 10 percent each. Omron is advancing more than 9 percent, while Fujikura, Mitsui Fudosan and Sumitomo Realty & Development gaining almost 8 percent each. Chugai Pharmaceutical and Dai Nippon Printing are adding more than 7 percent each.

Conversely, KDDI and Nippon Electric Glass are tumbling almost 8 percent each, while Subaru is declining almost 4 percent.

In economic news, Japan posted a current account surplus of 728.8 billion yen in December, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday - down 32.0 percent on year. That missed expectations for a surplus of 1.060 trillion yen following the 3.674 trillion yen surplus in November. For all of 2025, the current account surplus was 31.879 trillion yen.

Imports were up 3.7 percent on year to 9.808 trillion yen and exports rose an annual 4.5 percent to 9.943 trillion yen for a trade surplus of 134.9 billion yen. The capital account saw a deficit of 14.1 billion yen, while the financial account had a surplus of 736.0 billion yen.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan said the value of overall bank lending was up 4.5 percent on year in January, coming in at 663.816 trillion yen. That was in line with expectations and up from the downwardly revised 4.3 percent increase in December (originally 4.4 percent). Excluding trusts, bank lending was up an annual 4.9 percent at 584.591 trillion yen - up from 4.8 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 156 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move back to the upside during trading on Friday after moving sharply lower over the past few sessions. The major averages all showed substantial upward moves, with the Dow closing above 50,000 for the first time.

The major averages reached new highs late in the session before giving back some ground going into the end of the day. The Dow soared 1,206.95 points or 2.5 percent to 50,115.67, the Nasdaq surged 490.63 points or 2.2 percent to 23,031.21 and the S&P 500 jumped 133.90 points or 2.0 percent to 6,932.30.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 0.9 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday after the U.S. issued an advisory telling its citizens to depart from Iran, further stoking concerns of war. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $0.20 or 0.32 percent at $63.49 per barrel.