Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is slightly higher on Thursday, reversing the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 50,600 level, with gains in financial stocks partially offset weakness in technology stocks. Most other sectors displayed a mixed performance.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 39.70 points or 0.08 percent to 50,642.50, after touching a high of 50,875.98 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 6 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is up almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging up 0.3 percent, while Honda is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are losing more than 3 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is down more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.3 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.2 percent, Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent, while Canon is losing almost 1 percent and Sony is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among other major gainers, Ryohin Keikaku, Konica Minolta, Mitsui & Co. and Toppan Holdings are gaining more than 4 percent each, while Ebara is adding more than 3 percent. Chugai Pharmaceutical and FUJIFILM Holdings are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nintendo is losing almost 4 percent and Sumitomo Pharma is declining more than 3 percent, while IHI, Tokyo Electric Power, Konami Group and DeNA are down almost 3 percent each.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher in the latter part of the trading day on Wednesday after showing a lack of direction for much of the session, following the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.

The major averages all moved to the upside on the day after ending Tuesday's choppy trading session narrowly mixed. The Dow jumped 497.46 points or 1.1 percent to 48,057.75, the S&P 500 climbed 46.17 points or 0.7 percent to 6,886.68 and the Nasdaq rose 77.67 points or 0.3 percent to 23,654.16.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices edged higher Wednesday after the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. crude inventories decreased much more than expected. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.20 or 0.34 percent at $58.45 per barrel.