Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 51,350 level, with gains in index heavyweights, financial and technology and stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 467.52 points or 0.92 percent at 51,379.28, after touching a high of 51,513.16 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

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

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Advantest are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are all gaining almost 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent and Canon is edging down 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 2 percent and Sony is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Furukawa Electric is jumping almost 8 percent and DeNA is soaring more than 7 percent, while Japan Steel Works, ANA Holdings and Fujitsu are surging more than 5 percent. Fujikura is gaining more than 4 percent, while Renesas Electronics, NEC, Chugai Pharmaceutical and NGK Insulators are advancing almost 4 percent each. Sharp, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Recruit Holdings and Ajinomoto are adding more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Mitsubishi Estate is losing almost 4 percent.

In economic news, overall bank lending in Japan was up 4.1 percent on year in October, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday - coming in at 650.798 trillion yen. That beat forecasts for 3.8 percent, which would have been unchanged from the previous month. Excluding trusts, bank lending jumped an annual 4.5 percent to 571.866 trillion yen - up from 4.2 percent in September.

Meanwhile, Japan posted a seasonally adjusted current account surplus of 4.483 trillion yen in September, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday - up 191.6 percent on year. That exceeded expectations for a surplus of 2.26 trillion yen following the upwardly revised 3.701 trillion yen surplus in August (originally 246.35 trillion yen).

Exports were up 8.6 percent on year at 9.449 trillion yen, while imports rose 1.7 percent to 9.213 trillion yen for a trade surplus of 236 billion yen. The capital account saw a shortfall of 20.9 billion yen, while the financial account had a surplus of 6.778 trillion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 154-yen range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Monday, regaining ground following the considerable weakness seen in the previous week. The major averages all moved to the upside on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the charge.

The major averages ended the day just off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq surged 522.64 points or 2.3 percent to 23,527.17, the S&P 500 jumped 103.63 points or 1.5 percent to 6,832.43 and the Dow advanced 381.53 points or 0.8 percent to 47,368.63.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index shot up 1.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 1,1 percent.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Monday on the prospects of the U.S. government shutdown coming to a close. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.31 or 0.52 percent at $60.06 per barrel.