Japanese Market Significantly Higher At 33-year Highs

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous six sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 moving above the 30,800 level to near 33-year highs, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, boosted by gains in index heavyweight stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 252.05 points or 0.82 percent to 30,825.98, after touching a high of 30,924.57 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 3 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.5 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.5 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing more than 1 percent each.

Among major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.5 percent and Sony is gaining almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 1 percent and Panasonic is edging down 0.3 percent. Among the other major gainers, Ricoh is surging almost 7 percent and Japan Steel Works is gaining more than 4 percent, while M3 and Recruit Holdings are adding almost 4 percent each. Yaskawa Electric, OKUMA, NEXON and Olympus are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, Overall consumer prices in Japan were up 3.5 percent on year in April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday. That was well above expectations for an increase of 2.5 percent and up from 3.2 percent in March.

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, inflation rose 0.6 percent - above forecasts for 0.5 percent and up from 0.4 percent in the previous month.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile food prices, were up 3.4 percent on year - matching forecasts and accelerating from 3.1 percent a month earlier. On month, core CPI was up 0.5 percent - unchanged and in line with expectations.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-138 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed another strong move to the upside during trading on Thursday following the rally seen during Wednesday's session. With the continued advance, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached their best closing levels in about nine months.

The major averages reached new highs for the session going into the close of trading. The Nasdaq surged 188.27 points or 1.5 percent to 12,688.83, the S&P 500 jumped 39.28 points or 0.9 percent to 4,198.05 and the Dow rose 115.14 points or 0.3 percent to 33,535.91.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Thursday amid concerns about the outlook for demand after recent data showed an increase in U.S. crude inventories last week, while a strong dollar weighed as well on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.97 or 1.3 percent at $71.86 a barrel.