Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading slightly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from European markets and lack of cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 39,000 mark, with gains some index heavyweights, automakers and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 43.49 points or 0.11 percent at 38,945.99, after touching a high of 39,238.21 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.3 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are gaining almost 1 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.5 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are losing almost 1 percent each, while Canon and Panasonic are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

Among the other major gainers, Sumitomo Pharma is gaining more than 4 percent, DeNA is advancing almost 4 percent and Disco is adding more than 3 percent.

Conversely, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and IHI are losing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, the markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday after closing sharply higher on Friday.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.18 percent, Germany's DAX climbed 0.42 percent and France's CAC 40 closed up 0.31 percent.