Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - Recouping the losses in the previous four sessions, the Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Thursday, snapping the four-session losing streak, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 38,800 level to fresh 34-year highs, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 562.19 points or 1.47 percent to 38,824.35, after touching a 34-year high of 38,924.88 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging almost 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining 2.5 percent and Honda is adding more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 4 percent and Screen Holdings is soaring almost 9 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Sony are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 2 percent. Panasonic is flat.

Among other major gainers, Resonac Holdings is surging almost 5 percent and Aozora Bank is gaining more than 4 percent, while SMC, Hitachi and Lasertec are adding more than 3 percent each. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Shin-Etsu Chemical and Mazda Motor are advancing more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Chugai Pharmaceutical is declining almost 5 percent.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to contract, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Thursday with a manufacturing PMI score of 47.2. That's down from 48.0 in January, and it moves further beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the services PMI eased from 53.1 in January to 52.5 in February.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks spent most of Wednesday's session in the red but staged a notable recovery attempt going into the close of trading. The Dow and the S&P 500 bounced well off their worst levels and into positive territory, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq still closed lower for the third straight session.

While the Nasdaq fell 49.91 points or 0.3 percent to 15,580.90, the Dow inched up 48.44 points or 0.1 percent to 38,612.24 and the S&P 500 crept up 6.29 points or 0.1 percent to 4,981.80.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices rebounded from early losses and settled higher on Wednesday as concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East outweighed weak outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $0.87 or 1.1 percent at $77.91 a barrel.