Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Wednesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 64,000 level, with gains in index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 720.27 or 1.14 percent at 63,988.64, after touching a high of 64,196.68 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.1 percent, while Toyota is flat.

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are gaining almost 3 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.3 percent, while Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.3 percent and Panasonic is gaining almost 1 percent, while Canon is declining almost 6 percent and Sony is losing more than 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Kioxia Holdings is soaring more than 8 percent and Taiyo Yuden is surging almost 8 percent, while Renesas Electronics and Sumco are advancing more than 5 percent each. Ibiden and TDK are gaining more than 4 percent each, while Murata Manufacturing, Kyocera, Disco, JX Advanced Metals, SMC and Shin-Etsu Chemical are adding almost 4 percent each. Socionext and Denka are up more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Capcom is tumbling almost 11 percent, Nitto Denko is slipping more than 5 percent and Konami Group is declining almost 5 percent, while Asahi Group and Kirin Holdings are losing more than 3 percent each. Tokio Marine and BANDAI NAMCO are down almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 157 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed another notable move to the upside during trading on Tuesday after starting the week off on an upbeat note. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher, bouncing further off the two-month closing low set last Friday.

The Nasdaq gave back some ground going into the end of the day but still jumped 308.43 points or 1.2 percent to 26,477.60. The S&P 500 also climbed 45.83 points or 0.6 percent to 7,722.60, while the narrower Dow posted a more modest gain, inching up 15.99 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 52,377.57. Meanwhile, the major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.5 percent and the German DAX Index advanced by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped again on Tuesday on efforts by regional intermediaries in the gulf to defuse Middle East tensions. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery sank $1.73 or 1.70 percent at $100.03 per barrel.