Japanese Market Sharply Higher; Up 2%

(RTTNews) - Extending the gains in the previous three sessions, the Japanese market is sharply higher on Friday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is jumping almost 2 percent to above the 41,850 level, with gains across all sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 792.90 points or 1.93 percent to 41,852.05, after touching a high of 41,862.00 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is soaring almost 11 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 2 percent and Honda is adding more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Screen Holdings is adding almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is adding almost 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is surging more than 6 percent, Canon is gaining more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 1 percent and Panasonic is advancing almost 2 percent.

Among other major gainers, Terumo is jumping almost 10 percent, Nitori Holdings is soaring more than 8 percent, Orix is surging almost 6 percent and Nintendo is rising almost 5 percent, while Subaru, FUJIFILM and Mazda Motor are gaining almost 4 percent each. Tokyu and Mitsui Fudosan are adding more than 3 percent each, while Konica Minolta and Ebara are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Chugai Pharmaceutical is plummeting more than 18 percent, while Trend Micro and DeNA are tumbling more than 6 percent each. Furukawa Electric is declining almost 6 percent, Nikon is losing more than 4 percent and Taiheiyo Cement is slipping almost 3 percent.

In economic news, the average of household spending in Japan was down a seasonally adjusted 5.2 percent on month in June, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications aid on Friday - coming in at 316,085 yen. That missed forecasts for a decline of 3.0 percent following the 4.6 percent gain in May. On a yearly basis, household spending rose 1.3 percent - again shy of expectations for 2.8 percent and down from 4.7 percent in the previous month. The average of monthly income per household stood at 522,318 yen, up 0.4 percent from the previous year.

Japan posted a current account surplus of 1.348 trillion yen in June, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday - down 23.6 percent from a year earlier. That missed forecasts for a surplus of 1.480 trillion yen and was down from 3.436 trillion yen in the previous month. Exports were down 2.4 percent on year at 8.962 trillion yen and imports fell 1.3 percent to 8.493 trillion yen for a trade surplus of 469.6 billion yen. The capital account showed a deficit of 53.8 billion yen, while the financial account saw a surplus of 1.141 trillion yen.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher early in the session but gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session before eventually ending the day mixed.

While tech-heavy Nasdaq added to Wednesday's strong gain, climbing 73.27 points or 0.4 percent to 21,242.70, the S&P 500 edged down 5.06 points or 0.1 percent to 6,340.00 and the Dow fell 224.48 points or 0.5 percent to 43,968.64.

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent and the German DAX Index shot up by 1.1 percent.

Crude oil prices fell Thursday on inconsistency in the U.S. stance on Russia and its invasion on Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $0.49 or 0.76 percent at $63.86 per barrel.