Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Tuesday, recouping some of the loses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving well above the 39,500 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in index heavyweights and some exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 107.83 points or 0.27 percent at 39,565.32, after touching a high of 39,796.22 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.5 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest, Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

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

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic and Sony are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent and Canon is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Japan Steel Works is surging almost 5 percent, while DeNA, IHI and Sumitomo Realty & Development are advancing more than 4 percent each. Nintendo is gaining more than 3 percent, while BANDAI NAMCO, Keisei Electric Railway, Chugai Pharmaceutical, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Konami Group are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 154 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Monday following the lackluster performance seen during last Friday's session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the charge, surging to a new record closing high.

The Nasdaq pulled back off its best levels going into the close but still ended the day up 247.17 points or 1.2 percent at 20,173.89. The S&P 500 also climbed 22.99 points or 0.4 percent to 6,074.08, while the narrower Dow bucked the uptrend and fell 110.58 points or 0.3 percent to 43,717.48.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.7 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Monday amid concerns about the outlook for demand after weak economic data from China and the threat of tariffs. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed down $0.58 at $70.71 a barrel.