Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 27,800 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, led by gains in technology, exporters and financial stocks, even as traders remained cautious amid concerns about the outlook for interest rate hikes.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 338.09 points or 1.23 percent at 27,865.73, after touching a high of 27,943.27 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining 4.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are gaining almost 3 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 4 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are adding almost 1 percent each.

The major exporters are higher, with Sony gaining almost 4 percent, Panasonic edging up 0.5 percent and Canon adding almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is flat. Among the other major gainers, Yamaha Motor is soaring almost 10 percent, Hitachi Zosen is surging more than 8 percent, Sharp is gaining more than 6 percent, Dai-ichi Life is adding more than 5 percent, while Tokai Carbon is advancing almost 5 percent and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is up more than 4 percent, while Sumitomo Realty & Development, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Hitachi Construction Machinery and NEXON are all rising more than 3 percent each. Kikkoman is up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, NTT Data is losing almost 5 percent and Showa Denko K.K. is declining more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 146 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a lackluster performance for much of the trading day on Monday before rallying in the latter part of the session to add to the strong gains posted last Friday.

The Dow showed a notable move to the upside, ending the day up 423.78 points or 1.3 percent at 32,827.00, the broader S&P 500 also jumped 36.25 points or 1.0 percent to 3,806.80, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 89.27 points or 0.9 percent to 10,564.52.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index ended the day nearly unchanged and the German DAX Index rose by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices saw considerable volatility on Monday amid uncertainty about the outlook for Chinese energy demand due to conflicting reports about the country's COVID-19 policies. After spiking earlier, West Texas Intermediate finished lower by $0.82 or 0.9 percent at $91.79 a barrel.