Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading 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 68,450 level, with gains in technology and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in automaker stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 957.29 points or 1.42 percent to 68,481.35, after touching a high of 68,799.71 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.2 percent and Honda is down almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is surging almost 5 percent, Screen Holdings is gaining more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 2 percent and Panasonic is adding almost 3 percent, while Sony is losing more than 2 percent and Canon is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Toppan Holdings is skyrocketing more than 14 percent and Taiyo Yuden is soaring almost 10 percent, while Ibiden and Murata Manufacturing are jumping almost 9 percent each. Kioxia Holdings is surging more than 8 percent and Tokuyama is advancing more than 7 percent, while NGK, Lasertec, Sumco and Sumitomo Electric Industries are gaining almost 5 percent each. Disco is adding more than 4 percent, while Mitsui Kinzoku, Omron and TDK are all up more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, SHIFT is declining more than 4 percent and NEXON is slipping more than 3 percent, while Fanuc and Trend Micro are losing almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 7.2 percent on year in July, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 7.4 percent and down from the upwardly revised 7.3 percent gain in June (originally 7.1 percent).

On a monthly basis, producer prices rose 0.1 percent versus forecasts for a gain of 0.6 percent following the upwardly revised 0.5 percent increase in the previous month (originally 0.4 percent). Export prices were down 0.6 percent on month and up 10.1 percent on year, the central bank said, while import prices gained 0.3 percent on month and 17.7 percent on year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 159 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks remained mostly positive throughout the trading day on Wednesday after advancing early in the session, although buying interest appeared somewhat subdued. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 finished the day higher, partly offsetting the weakness seen to start the week.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 143.04 points or 0.5 percent to 26,588.49 and the S&P 500 rose 20.30 points or 0.3 percent to 7,748.50. Meanwhile, the narrower Dow spent most of the day lingering near the unchanged line before closing down 21.58 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 53,770.27.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices inched lower after Pakistan announced initiating efforts to bring the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $0.22 or 0.2 percent at $82.98 per barrel.