Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly higher on Wednesday, recouping some of the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 moved above the 32,300 level, with gains in exporters and technology stocks partially offset by losses in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 48.17 or 0.15 percent at 32,319.99, after touching a high of 32,512.17 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 1 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.4 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 3 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic and Sony are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Canon is edging up 0.2 percent. Mitsubishi Electric is flat.

Among other major gainers, Yokogawa Electric is skyrocketing almost 13 percent, Mazda Motor is soaring almost 12 percent, LY Corp. is surging almost 8 percent, Nintendo is advancing more than 6 percent and Suzuki Motor is gaining almost 5 percent, while GS Yuasa and Renesas Electronics are up almost 4 percent. Eisai is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Tokai Carbon is plunging almost 10 percent, BANDAI NAMCO slipping almost 9 percent, Meiji Holdings is declining almost 8 percent and IHI is losing more than 6 percent, while Shimizu and Resonac Holdings are down more than 5 percent each. Yamaha Motor, Oji Holdings, Fukuoka Financial Group and T&D Holdings are sliding almost 5 percent each. Idemitsu Kosan, Dai-ichi Life, Concordia Financial and Resona Holdings are falling more than 4 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-150 yen-range on Wednesday.