Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving to just below the 33,500 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in technology and financial stocks. Traders also cheered better than expected retail sales growth in May.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 296.91 points or 0.89 percent to 33,490.90, after touching a high of 33,527.88 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.3 percent, while Honda is edging up 0.1 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 3 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding almost 2 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is gaining almost 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is up more than 1 percent, while Canon is losing more than 1 percent. Sony is flat.

Among other major gainers, Rakuten Groupis surging more than 5 percent and Olympus is gaining more than 3 percent, while Terumo, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Seven & I Holdings are adding almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, J. Front Retailing is losing more than 3 percent, while Oji Holdings and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone are down almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, the total value of retail sales in Japan was up 5.7 percent on year in May, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Thursday. That beat expectations for an increase of 5.4 percent following the marginally revised 5.1 percent gain in April.

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

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance over the course of the trading session on Wednesday after an early move to the downside. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing mixed.

While the Nasdaq pulled back well off its best levels of the day, the tech-heavy index still closed up 36.08 points or 0.3 percent at 13,591.75. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 edged down 1.55 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,376.86 and the Dow dipped 74.08 points or 0.2 percent to 33,852.66.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday as data showed a sharp drop in U.S. crude stockpiles in the week ended June 23rd. The dollar's rise on upbeat economic data, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks about interest rates capped oil's gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $1.86 or about 2.8 percent at $69.56 a barrel.