Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 moving up to near the 38,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks. Financial stocks were the only weak spot.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 196.26 points or 0.52 percent at 38,284.83, after touching a high of 38,346.98 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each.

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

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is losing more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Canon is gaining almost 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.1 percent and Panasonic is advancing almost 2 percent, while Sony is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Shiseido and Minebea Mitsumi are gaining more than 4 percent each, while BayCurrent, Nidec and Ricoh are adding almost 4 percent each. Sumitomo Pharma and Renesas Electronics are rising more than 3 percent each, while Seiko Epson, Ebara, Sumco and Yaskawa Electric are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 144 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Monday following the strong upward move seen during last Friday's session. Despite the choppy trading, the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a new three-month closing high.

The major averages ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Dow edged down 1.11 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 42,761.76, the S&P 500 inched up 5.52 points or 0.1 percent to 6,005.88 and the Nasdaq rose 61.28 points or 0.3 percent to 19,591.24.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices rose on Monday due to hopes sparked by US-China trade talks and that the nearing summer travel season may boost energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery settled at $65.29 per barrel, up 71 cents, the highest since April 3.