Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Recouping the losses in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is significantly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 36,500 mark, with gains in index heavyweights and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 423.76 points or 1.17 percent to 36,543.68, after touching a high of 36,548.78 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging almost 9 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 2 percent and Honda is adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 5 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are adding almost 2 percent each.

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

Among the major exporters, Canon and Panasonic are losing more than 1 percent each, while Sony is edging down 0.3 percent. Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among other major gainers, Kyowa Kirin is skyrocketing almost 18 percent, Renesas Electronics is surging almost 6 percent and NTT Data is gaining more than 5 percent, while Terumo, Taiyo Yuden and Orix are adding more than 4 percent each. Hitachi Zosen is advancing more than 3 percent, while Subaru and Nintendo are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, DeNA is plummeting almost 12 percent, Mitsui Mining & Smelting is plunging almost 10 percent, Casio Computer is sliding more than 8 percent, Suzuki Motor is declining almost 8 percent and AGC is losing more than 6 percent, while Chubu Electric Power, Tokyo Electric Power and Taisei are down more than 3 percent each. Kao, Comsys Holdings and Sharp are slipping almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, Japan posted a seasonally adjusted current account surplus of 744.3 billion yen in December, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday. That missed expectations for a surplus of 1.018 trillion yen and was down from 1.926 trillion yen in November. Exports were up 9.4 percent on year at 9.538 trillion yen, while imports were down an annual 5.4 percent at 9.422 trillion yen for a trade surplus of 115.5 billion yen.

The capital account saw a deficit of 24.2 billion yen, while the financial account had a surplus of 743.7 billion yen. For all of 2023, the current account surplus was 20.629 trillion yen - up from 10.714 trillion yen in 2022.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 148 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday after ending Tuesday's choppy trading session modestly higher. The Dow and the S&P 500 set new record closing highs, with the latter reaching an intraday peak just shy of 5,000.

The major averages pulled back off their best levels going into the close but remained firmly positive. The S&P 500 climbed 40.83 points or 0.8 percent to4,995.06 and the Dow rose 156.00 points or 0.4 percent to 38,677.36, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 147.65 points or 1.0 percent to 15,756.64.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both slid by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Wednesday after official data showed a notable drop in gasoline stockpiles last week in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.55 at $73.86 a barrel, gaining for a third straight session.