Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Thursday, recouping the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 32,200 level, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, with gainss across most sectors, led by exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 376.52 points or 1.18 percent to 32,320.45, after touching a high of 32,335.32 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding 1.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota and Honda are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

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

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is down almost 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.2 percent, Sony is gaining almost 5 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 1 percent. Panasonic is flat.

Among other major gainers, Daiichi Sankyo is gaining almost 5 percent and Recruit Holdings is adding more than 4 percent, while Sumitomo Metal Mining and M3 are up more than 3 percent each. Shin-Etsu Chemical, Renesas Electronics and Z Holdings are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 138 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday, extending the upward move seen to start the week. With the continued advance, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended the session at their best closing levels in over a year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 158.26 points or 1.2 percent to 13,918.96 and the S&P 500 climbed 32.90 points or 0.7 percent to 4,472.16. The narrower Dow pulled back well off its best levels of the day but still closed up 86.01 points or 0.3 percent at 34,347.43.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index shot up by 1.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index surged by 1.6 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures showed a notable move to the upside during trading on Wednesday, adding to the surge seen in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $0.92 or 1.2 percent at $72.71 a barrel.