Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 50,800 level, with gains in exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 582.68 or 1.16 percent at 50,801.86, after touching a high of 50,910.84 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is jumping more than 15 percent, Screen Holdings is advancing almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is advancing more than 4 percent, Panasonic is gaining more than 2 percent and Canon is edging up 0.2 percent, while Sony is declining almost 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Lasertec and Tokuyama are surging more than 5 percent each, while Fujikura is gaining more than 4 percent. Japan Steel Works, Mitsui Kinzoku and Hitachi are adding more than 3 percent each, while Disco, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Hitachi Construction Machinery are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nidec is tumbling more than 5 percent, SHIFT is declining more than 4 percent and BayCurrent is losing more than 3 percent, while Olympus, Nomura Research Institute, Daiichi Sankyo, Shiseido and Kyocera are down almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 151 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday but largely maintained a positive bias and ended the day mostly higher. The major averages added to the strong gains posted during Monday's session, once again reaching new record closing highs.

The major averages pulled back off their highs in late-day trading but still closed in positive territory. The Nasdaq advanced 190.04 points or 0.8 percent to 23,827.49, the Dow climbed 161.78 points or 0.3 percent to 47,706.37 and the S&P 500 rose 15.73 points or 0.2 percent to 6,890.89.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Tuesday on news that OPEC is leaning toward another modest increase in production in December. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery plunged $1.32 or 2.2 percent to $59.99 a barrel.