Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving to nearly the 27,400 level, despite the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with energy and technology stocks leading the charge. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 252.79 points or 0.93 percent to 27,373.32, after touching a high of 27,391.69 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining 2.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 1 percent and Toyota is flat.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 2 percent, Advantest is advancing 2.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is gaining almost 1 percent, Sony is adding more that 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is advancing more than 1 percent and Panasonic is up almost 2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Rakuten is surging more than 5 percent, while Eisai is gaining more than 4 percent, Credit Saison is adding more than 3 percent and Daiichi Sankyo is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Aeon is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 144 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks staged a significant recovery attempt after pulling back sharply in early trading on Wednesday but still ended the day modestly lower. The major averages gave back ground after moving sharply higher over the two previous sessions.

The major averages pulled back going into the close, finishing the session in negative territory. The Dow edged down 42.45 points or 0.1 percent to 30,273.87, the Nasdaq fell 27.77 points or 0.3 percent to 11,148.64 and the S&P 500 dipped 7.65 points or 0.2 percent to 3,783.28.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped 1.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday after OPEC agreed to impose output cuts, aiming to spur a recovery in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November climbed $1.24 or 1.4 percent at $87.76 a barrel.