Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Adding the strong gains in the previous four sessions, the Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Friday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is moving above the 35,400 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 372.73 points or 1.06 percent to 35,422.59, after touching a fresh 34-year high of 35,839.65 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is surging more than 5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.2 percent and Toyota is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.4 percent, while Screen Holdings is adding almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Canon is edging up 0.1 percent. Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, FUJIFILM is gaining more than 3 percent, while Sapporo Holdings, Sumco, Takara Holdings and Nitori Holdings are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.1 percent on year in December, the Bank of Japan said on Friday - coming in at 614.599 trillion yen. That beat forecasts for a 2.7 percent increase and was up from 2.8 percent in November. For the fourth quarter of 2023, overall lending rose 2.9 percent, lending excluding trusts climbed 3.2 percent and lending from trusts added 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Japan posted a current account surplus of 1.926 trillion yen in November, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday. That missed forecasts for a surplus of 2.385 trillion and was down from 2.583 trillion in October. Exports were down 4.5 percent on year to 8.623 trillion yen and imports slumped an annual 11.4 percent to 9.348 trillion yen for a deficit of 724.1 billion yen. The capital account saw a deficit of 30.0 billion yen, while the financial account posted a surplus of 1.087 trillion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 145 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks staged a notable recovery attempt in the latter part of the session after turning lower over the course of morning trading on Thursday. The major averages climbed well off their worst levels of the day, eventually closing roughly flat.

The Dow fell as much as 270 points but rebounded to end the day up 15.29 points or less than tenth of a percent at 37,711.02. The Nasdaq also crept up 0.54 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 14,970.19, but the S&P 500 edged down 3.21 points or 0.1 percent at 4,780.24.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index slid by 0.9 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Thursday as prices rebounded on likely disruptions in trade and supplies after Iran seized a tanker with Iraqi crude marked for delivery to Turkey. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.65 at $72.02 a barrel.