Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher in post-holiday trading on Tuesday, reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 38,500 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 484.62 points or 1.27 percent at 38,538.29, after touching a high of 38,572.67 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday prior to the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining 2.5 percent, Screen Holdings is surging more than 6 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding almost 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is surging almost 6 percent, Sony is adding almost 3 percent and Canon is up almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent

Among the other major losers, Yamaha is plummeting more than 14 percent, NH Foods is plunging more than 10 percent and AGC is losing more than 3 percent, while Recruit Holdings and Konica Minolta are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sumitomo Electric Industries is soaring almost 11 percent, while TDK and Nomura Holdings are surging more than 7 percent each. Mitsubishi Chemical Group is advancing almost 7 percent, Disco is gaining 5.5 percent, Subaru is adding almost 5 percent and Minebea Mitsumi is rising more than 4 percent, while Mazda Motor, Murata Manufacturing and Marubeni are rising almost 4 percent each. Kyocera, Kubota and Denso are up more than 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 152 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Monday after turning in a strong performance during last Friday's session. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing in negative territory.

The Dow underperformed its counterparts, sliding 257.59 points or 0.6 percent to 41,794.60. The Nasdaq fell 59.93 points or 0.3 percent to 18,179.98 and the S&P 500 dipped 16.11 points or 0.3 percent to 5,712.69.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Monday, buoyed by OPEC's decision to delay plans to increase production, and on rising concerns about tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December closed up $1.98 or about 2.85% at $71.47 a barrel, extending gains to a fourth straight session.