Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading significantly higher on Thursday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up 500 points to well above the 42,400 level, with gains across all sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 500.38 points or 1.19 percent to 42,439.27, after touching a high of 42,481.00 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is advancing almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 1 percent and Honda is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing almost 4 percent, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 2 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are advancing more than 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining almost 3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 2 percent and Panasonic is edging up 0.1 percent, while Canon is losing more than 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Fujikura is surging almost 6 percent and Furukawa Electric is gaining almost 4 percent, while IHI, ZOZO and Minebea Mitsumi are adding more than 3 percent each. Dowa Holdings, Tokyo Electric Power, TDK, Nippon Electric Glass, T&D Holdings and Shimizu are all up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nidec is tumbling almost 17 percent.

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

On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground after an early advance on Wednesday but moved back to the upside late in the session to end the day mostly higher. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 regained ground following the pullback seen over the two previous sessions, although the narrower Dow saw further downside.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 218.10 points or 1.0 percent to 21,497.73 and the S&P 500 climbed 32.72 points or 0.5 percent to 6,448.26. The Dow, on the other hand, posted a modest loss, edging down 24.58 points or 0.1 percent to 45,271.23.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.7 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday amid increasing concerns of oversupply due to reported plans by OPEC to boost output at its upcoming meeting on Sunday. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $1.65 or 2.52 percent at $63.94 per barrel.