Japanese Market Is Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly higher in choppy trading on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 27,500 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with financial stocks gaining amid easing worries about global banking sector woes.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 41.33 points or 0.15 percent at 27,518.20, after touching a high of 27,603.45 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding almost 1 percent and Toyota is also up more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 1 percent each, while Screen Holdings is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 3 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are adding more than 3 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Canon is gaining almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are edging up 0.5 percent each. Sony is losing more than 1 percent. Among the other major gainers, Resona Holdings is gaining more than 4 percent, while Dai-ichi Life, Otsuka Holdings, JGC Holdings and Mazda Motor are adding more than 3 percent each. Inpex, Mitsubishi Motors, T&D Holdings, Chiba Bank, Pacific Metals, Dowa Holdings and NTN Corp. are all up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 130 yen-range on Tuesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks indexes turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday after posting strong gains last week. While the major averages all moved to the upside in early trading, the tech-heavy Nasdaq swung back and forth across the unchanged line before closing in negative territory.

The Nasdaq slid 55.12 points or 0.5 percent to 11,768.83, while the Dow climbed 194.55 points or 0.6 percent to 32,432.08 and the S&P 500 rose 6.54 points or 0.2 percent to 3,977.53.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both advanced by 0.9 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Monday amid concerns about oil supply after Russian President Vladmir Putin said he will station tactical nuclear weapons in ally Belarus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May surged $3.55 or 5.1 percent at $72.81 a barrel.