Japanese Market At Record Highs

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher in post-holiday trade on Monday, extending the gains in the previous session. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 39,300 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with gains in index heavyweights and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 253.29 or 0.65 percent at 39,351.97, after touching all-time record high of 39,388.08 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Thursday ahead of the holiday on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.1 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing 2.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is down almost 1 percent, while Advantest is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is advancing 1.5 percent and Mizuho Financial is adding almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Canon is edging up 0.3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 4 percent and Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent, while Sony is losing almost 2 percent.

Among other major gainers, Sumco is surging almost 6 percent, Marubeni is gaining more than 5 percent and Chugai Pharmaceutical is adding almost 5 percent, while Toto and Hitachi Zosen are advancing more than 4 percent each. M3, Resonac Holdings, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Electric are up almost 4 percent each, while NEC, Daiichi Sankyo, Fukuoka Financial, Rakuten Group and GS Yuasa are rising more than 3 percent each. Mitsui & Co. is up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Lasertec is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks extended Thursday's substantial rally in early trading on Friday but turned in a relatively lackluster performance over the remainder of the trading session. Despite the choppy trading, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.

The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing narrowly mixed. While the Nasdaq dipped 44.80 points or 0.3 percent to 15,996.82, the Dow rose 62.42 points or 0.2 percent to 39,131.53 and the S&P 500 inch up 1.77 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,088.80.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.7 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday as concerns about the outlook for demand and the recent data showing a jump in U.S. crude inventories weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April dropped $2.12 or 2.65 percent at $76.49 a barrel.