Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is sharply higher in post-holiday trading on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous three sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 66,150 level, with gains in index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 1,155.12 points or 1.78 percent to 66,174.07, after touching a high of 66,249.11 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Friday ahead of the holidays on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is jumping more than 6 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 1 percent, while Honda is gaining more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing almost 4 percent, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are declining more than 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 3 percent, Canon is adding almost 1 percent and Panasonic is advancing more than 4 percent, while Sony is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among other major gainers, Ibiden soaring more than 15 percent, Socionext is jumping more than 12 percent and Sumitomo Electric Industries is surging almost 7 percent, while Resona Holdings and Renesas Electronics are advancing almost 6 percent each. Ebara is gaining more than 5 percent, while Sumco, Toppan Holdings and TDK are adding more than 4 percent each. Minebea Mitsumi and Kioxia Holdings are rising almost 4 percent each, while Nikon is up more than 3 percent.

Conversely, Recruit Holdings is sliding almost 5 percent and Comsys Holdings is slipping more than 4 percent, while MS&AD Insurance and Tokyo Electric Power are declining almost 4 percent each. Osaka Gas, BayCurrent, Kansai Electric Power and ZOZO are losing almost 3 percent each.

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

On Wall Street, stocks spent all of Wednesday under water, thanks to a rebound in crude oil prices that followed comments a day earlier from U.S. President Donald Trump. The major averages opened in the red on Wednesday and continued to trend lower throughout the session, ending at daily lows.

The Dow sank 352.10 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 51,511.59, while the NASDAQ dropped 308.24 points or 1.13 percent to close at 26,936.04 and the S&P 500 lost 58.61 points or 0.75 percent to end at 7,706.03.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index fell 31.50 points or 0.39 percent to 8,123.41, the German DAX Index sank 168.22 points or 0.66 percent to 25,410.63 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped 3.07 points or 0.03 percent to 10,705.26.

Crude oil prices snapped a five-day losing streak on Wednesday as prices climbed thanks to ongoing concerns about the Middle East conflict. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November delivery rose $1.90 or 2.1 percent to $92.40 a barrel.