Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(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 moving above the 37,500 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 467.17 points or 1.26 percent at 37,520.27, after touching a high of 37,544.39 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Friday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 3 percent.

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

The major exporters are mostly higher. Mitsubishi Electric is surging more than 5 percent, Sony is advancing almost 3 percent, Canon is gaining more than 1 percent and Panasonic is adding almost 2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is surging almost 8 percent and Hitachi Construction Machinery is advancing more than 4 percent, while Mitsubishi Estate, Japan Steel Works and IHI are gaining almost 4 percent each. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Socionext, Hino Motors, Nomura Holdings, Fujitsu and CyberAgent are adding more than 3 percent each, while Kajima and Yamaha are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

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

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move back to the upside during trading on Friday following the sell-off seen over the course of Thursday's session. The major averages all moved sharply higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq posting a standout gain.

The major averages reached new highs for the session going into the close of trading. The Nasdaq soared 451.07 points or 2.6 percent to 17,754.09, the S&P 500 surged 117.42 points or 2.1 percent to 5,638.94 and the Dow jumped 674.62 points or 1.7 percent to 41,488.19.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index shot up by 1.0 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both jumped by 1.1 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday as worries about excess supply in the market eased after the U.S. government announced fresh sanctions on Iranian oil and shipping. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $0.63 or 1 percent at $67.18 a barrel.