Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 66,450 level, with gains in automakers, financial and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 82.67 points or 0.12 percent at 66,446.87, after touching a high of 67,034.74 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding almost 1 percent and Toyota is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.4 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing more than 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.4 percent.

The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.3 percent. Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent, while Canon and Sony are edging down 0.1 0.2 percent each.

Among the other major gainers, Ebara is surging almost 5 percent and Disco is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Ibiden is declining more than 3 percent and Daiichi Sankyo is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 157 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated early in the session on Friday but moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day. The major averages all finished the day in positive territory after ending the previous session roughly flat.

The Dow advanced 478.64 points or 0.9 percent to 51,828.62, bouncing off its lowest closing level in over three months. The Nasdaq climbed 129.34 points or 0.5 percent to 27,068.72 and the S&P 500 rose 39.28 points or 0.5 percent to 7,743.41.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. The German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, although the French CAC 40 Index bucked the uptrend and closed just below the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices retreated from recent highs on Friday following reports that Iran has submitted a proposal to the United States to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days.