Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Tuesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 39,900 level, with gains across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 110.12 points or 0.28 percent at 39,929.23, after touching a high of 40,275.89 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower Friday ahead of the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.1 percent, while Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent, Screen Holdings i is edging up 0.2 percent and Tokyo Electron is up almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining 1.5 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are adding almost 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Canon and Panasonic are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Sony is adding almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is surging more than 5 percent, while Fujikura, Ryohin Keikaku and Japan Steel Works are gaining almost 4 percent each. IHI and Furukawa Electric are adding more than 3 percent each, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries and LY are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Shiseido is declining more than 3 percent and Hoya is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-147 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks continued to turn in a strong performance throughout much of the trading day on Monday before giving back ground going into the close after moving mostly higher early in the session.

Despite the late-day pullback, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended the session at new record closing highs. The Nasdaq rose 78.52 points or 0.4 percent to 20,974.17 and the S&P 500 inched up 8.81 points or 0.1 percent to 6,305.60, although the narrower Dow edged down 19.12 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 44,323.07.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices slipped on Monday as investors seem concerned that heavy tariffs could block international trade and reduce demand for oil and energy. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery dipped $0.11 to $69.17 per barrel.