Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Reversing the losses in the previous session, the Japanese market is trading significantly higher on Friday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 49,400 level, with gains in automakers, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 438.15 points or 0.89 percent to 49,439.65, after touching a high of 49,503.60 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 2 percent and Honda is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 3 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 2 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Sony and Panasonic are losing almost 1 percent each, while Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are edging up 0.4 percent each.

Among other major gainers, SHIFT is surging more than 5 percent and Fujikura is advancing more than 4 percent, while Takeda Pharmaceutical, Mazda Motor, IHI, Lasertec, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Ibiden are gaining more than 3 percent each. Hitachi, Resonac Holdings, Fujitsu and Mercari are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Konami Group is losing more than 3 percent.

In economic news, overall consumer prices in Japan were up 2.9 percent on year in November, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday. That was in line with expectations and down from 3.0 percent in October. On a monthly basis, inflation was unchanged at 0.4 percent. Core CPI was up 3.0 percent on year - matching forecasts and unchanged from the October reading.

The Bank of Japan will also wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Friday and then announce its decision on interest rates. The BoJ is expected to hike its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, to 0.75 percent from 0.50 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Thursday after coming under considerable selling pressure over the course of the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the rebound by the major averages.

The Nasdaq jumped 313.04 points or 1.4 percent to 23,006.36 and the S&P 500 advanced 53.33 points or 0.8 percent to 6,774.76, while the narrower Dow fluctuated before closing up 65.88 points or 0.1 percent at 47,951.85.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices inched higher again on Thursday amid the lingering geopolitical concerns stemming from Venezuela and Russia. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.13 or 0.2 percent at $56.07 a barrel.