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 surging to an all-time high above the 50,150 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 878.35 points or 1.78 percent at 50,178.00, after touching a all-time high of 50,379.79 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing 4.5 percent, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is advancing 1.5 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Sony is gaining more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 2 percent and Canon advancing almost 2 percent, while Panasonic is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is surging almost 7 percent, Hoya is gaining more than 5 percent and Nidec is adding more than 4 percent, while Nitto Denko, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Taiyo Yuden are advancing almost 4 percent each. Kanadevia, Ebara, Taiheiyo Cement, Komatsu, SHIFT, Hitachi, Mitsui Kinzoku and Fukuoka Financial are up more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 152 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Friday, extending the upward move seen over the course of the previous session. With the continued advance, the major averages all reached new record closing highs.

The major averages pulled back off their best levels going into the end the day but still posted strong gains. The Dow jumped 472.51 points or 1.0 percent to 47,207.12, the Nasdaq surged 263.07 points or 1.2 percent to 23,204.87 and the S&P 500 climbed 53.25 points or 0.8 percent to 6,791.69.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.7 percent and the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent, although the French CAC 40 Index closed just below the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices dipped on Friday on profit taking following large gains a day earlier. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery slipped $0.17 or 0.3 percent to $61.62 per barrel; for the week, crude surged 7.8 percent.