Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly higher on Wednesday after opening well in the red, extending the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 33,400 level, despite the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with gains is technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 30.65 or 0.09 percent at 33,419.56, after touching a high of 33,499.16 and a low of 33,154.68 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is flat. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 1 percent, while Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is edging up 0.3 percent, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is flat.

Among the major exporters, Sony is losing more than 1 percent and Canon is edging down 0.2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among other major gainers, CyberAgent is gaining more than 4 percent and Shiseido is adding more than 3 percent, while Taiheiyo Cement and T&D Holdings are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 141 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks regained some ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after coming under pressure early in the session, but still closed mostly lower. The major averages extended the pullback seen late in last Friday's session.

The major averages all finished the day in negative territory. The Dow slid 245.25 points or 0.7 percent to 34,053.87, the S&P 500 fell 20.88 points or 0.5 percent to 4,388.71 and the Nasdaq dipped 22.28 points or 0.2 percent to 13,667.29.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both fell by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid concerns that further tightening by the Federal Reserve and other central banks may impact global economic growth and weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.74 at $71.19 a barrel.