Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is sharply higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 58,900 level, with gains in index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 800.32 points or 1.38 percent to 58,934.56, after touching a high of 58,934.56 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 5 percent Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 2 percent and Honda is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining 1.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 3 percent, while Screen Holdings is losing more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.1 percent.

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

Among other major gainers, Daikin Industries and Trend Micro are jumping more than 10 percent each, while TDK and Taiyo Yuden are surging almost 6 percent each. Fuji Electric and Asahi Kasei are advancing more than 4 percent each, while Mercari, Sumco, Mitsui Kinzoku, Minebea Mitsumi and Rakuten Group are gaining almost 4 percent each. Mazda Motor, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Mitsubishi Motors are adding more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is tumbling more than 5 percent, while Komatsu and Kubota are losing almost 5 percent each. Yamaha Motor, Shiseido, Kioxia Holdings and BayCurrent are declining more than 3 percent each, while Hitachi Construction Machinery is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 158 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed another strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday following the rally seen over the two previous sessions. With the continued upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 376.93 points or 1.6 percent to 24,016.02 and the S&P 500 advanced 55.57 points or 0.8 percent to 7,022.95, although the narrower bucked the uptrend and dipped 72.27 points or 0.2 percent to 48,463.72.

The major European markets also showed mixed moves on the day. The French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, although the German DAX Index bucked the downtrend and inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices edged higher on Wednesday as traders weighed the prospects of success in the upcoming U.S-Iran talks against the ongoing U.S. blockade on all Iranian ports across the Strait of Hormuz, which is keeping the supply concerns alive. West Texas Intermediate crude for May was up $0.36 or 0.39 percent at $91.64 per barrel.