Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous five sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 30,400 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors, led by technology and financial stocks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 393.90 points or 1.31 percent to 30,487.49, after touching a high of 30,667.13 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing 1.5 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent and Honda is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is surging more than 4 percent and Advantest is soaring almost 7 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 2 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.1 percent. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is flat.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.5 percent, while Canon is gaining more than 2 percent, Sony is surging almost 6 percent and Panasonic is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Renesas Electronics and Fujikura are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Recruit Holdings, Mitsui & Co., Nikon, Konami Group, Japan Steel Works, M3 and Aozora Bank are all adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nippon Paper Industries, Tokyo Electric Power and CyberAgent are losing more than 3 percent each, while Credit Saison and Chubu Electric Power are down almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 432.4 billion yen in April, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday. That beat expectations for a shortfall of 613.8 billion yen following the 755.1 billion yen deficit in March.

Exports were up 2.6 percent on year, shy of forecasts for an increase of 3.0 percent and slowing from 4.3 percent in the previous month. Imports were down an annual 2.3 percent versus expectations for a fall of 0.3 percent after climbing 7.3 percent a month earlier.

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

On Wall Street, stock showed a substantial move back to the upside during trading on Wednesday after ending Tuesday's session mostly lower. The Dow bounced off its lowest closing level in over a month, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a nearly nine-month closing high.

The major averages moved roughly sideways in the final hour of trading, holding on to strong gains. The Dow jumped 408.63 points or 1.2 percent to 33,420.77, the Nasdaq spiked 157.51 points or 1.3 percent to 12,500.57 and the S&P 500 surged 48.87 points or 1.2 percent to 4,158.77.

Meanwhile, the major European markets finished the day mixed. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Wednesday on expectations of higher demand and optimism over U.S. debt ceiling negotiations. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June jumped $1.97 or 2.8 percent at $72.83 a barrel.