Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading notably higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 41,000 mark, with gains in index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 216.89 points or 0.53 percent to 41,011.75, after touching a high of 41,078.62 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging up 0.2 percent, while Honda is losing almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.4 percent and Tokyo Electron is losing almost 3 percent, while Screen Holdings is gaining almost 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is advancing almost 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is losing more than 1 percent, while Canon is edging up 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 2 percent. Panasonic is flat.

Among other major gainers, M3 is skyrocketing more than 20 percent, Shiseido is soaring more than 9 percent and FUJIFILM is gaining more than 4 percent, while TDK, Aeon, Socionext and NEC are adding more than 3 percent. Konami Group, BayCurrent, NTT, CyberAgent, Murata Manufacturing and Resona Holdings are all up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Meiji Holdings and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are losing almost 4 percent each, while IHI is slipping almost 3 percent.

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

On Wall Street, stocks saw further upside over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after moving mostly higher early in the session. The major averages all moved to the upside on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the charge.

The Nasdaq jumped 252.87 points or 1.2 percent to 21,169.42 and the S&P 500 climbed 45.87 points or 0.7 percent to 6,345.06. The narrower Dow posted a more modest gain, rising 81.38 points or 0.2 percent to 44,193.12.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both closed up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil lost early gains on Wednesday as Russia faces a threat of U.S. sanctions on its oil exports after August 8 if it fails to end its attempt to annex Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $0.96 or 1.47 percent at $64.20 per barrel.