Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Monday, extending the sharp gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 67,000 mark to fresh all-time highs, with gains in index heavyweights and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in automaker stocks and a mixed performance is most other sectors.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 691.42 points or 1.04 percent at 67,020.92, after touching an all-time high of 67,050.43 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging almost 9 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is slipping more than 4 percent and Toyota is also declining more than 4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.4 percent, while Tokyo Electron are advancing more than 3 percent.

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

The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 2 percent and Panasonic is down almost 1 percent, while Sony is adding almost 4 percent and Canon is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Murata Manufacturing and Fujitsu are soaring almost 9 percent each, while BayCurrent is jumping more than 8 percent. Kioxia Holdings and NEC are surging more than 7 percent each, while Recruit Holdings, Nomura Research Institute, Konami Group and Socionext are advancing more than 6 percent each. Trend Micro and Omron are gaining almost 6 percent each, while Sumco and CyberAgent are adding almost 5 percent each. SHIFT is up more than 4 percent.

Conversely, Mitsubishi Motors is tumbling almost 8 percent and Rakuten Group is sliding almost 7 percent, while Nissan Motor, Ryohin Keikaku and Marubeni are slipping more than 6 percent each. JTEKT is declining almost 6 percent, while JFE Holdings and Mitsubishi Chemical are losing almost 5 percent each. Astellas Pharma, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Isuzu Motors and Mitsui & Co. are declining more than 4 percent each, while Toray Industries is down almost 4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 159 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Friday but largely maintained a positive bias before ending the day mostly higher. The Dow led the way higher, although all three major averages ended the day at new record closing highs.

The Dow climbed 363.49 points or 0.7 percent to 51,032.46, while the Nasdaq increased 55.15 points or 0.2 percent to 26,972.62 and the S&P 500 rose 16.43 points or 0.2 percent to 7,580.06.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day narrowly mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices tumbled Friday on expectations of the U.S. and Iran signing an agreement, which would allow for the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and pave the way for the resumption of oil and energy trade. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $1.65 or 1.86 percent at $87.25 per barrel.