Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading sharply higher on Friday, reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is breaching the 51,000 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and exporter stocks. Technology stocks are the only weak spot.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 868.40 points or 1.73 percent to 51,017.22, after touching a high of 51,127.69 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 3 percent and Honda is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 1 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is advancing almost 3 percent, Mizuho Financial is gaining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding almost 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining almost 2 percent, Canon is adding more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is advancing almost 3 percent and Panasonic is up more than 2 percent.

Among other major gainers, Sumitomo Metal Mining is surging more than 5 percent, Toray Industries is jumping almost 5 percent and Shin-Etsu Chemical is gaining more than 4 percent, while Nitto Denko, Yaskawa Electric, BayCurrent, Tokyo Electric Power, Mitsubishi Materials and Fujitsu are adding almost 4 percent each. Mitsubishi Estate, Dowa Holdings, Fanuc, Yokohama Rubber and Sompo Holdings 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 155 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks indexes moved in starkly opposite directions in early trading on Thursday, with the Dow moving sharply higher and the Nasdaq showing a significant pullback.

While the Nasdaq climbed well off its worst levels of the day, the tech-heavy index still closed down 60 points or 0.3 percent at 23,594. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose 14 points or 0.2 percent to 6,901 and the Dow jumped 646 points or 1.3 percent to a new record closing high of 48,704.01.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index climbed by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices dropped on Thursday on oversupply concerns even as OPEC prepares to pause output hikes in early 2026. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.88 or 1.51 percent at $57.58 per barrel.