Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading sharply higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous four sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 38,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 582.98 points or 1.55 percent to 38,305.38, after touching a high of 38,309.33 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 3 percent and Honda is adding more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing almost 4 percent, Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 3 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.4 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is advancing more than 4 percent, Panasonic is gaining more than 3 percent and Canon is adding almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among other major gainers, Fujikura is surging more than 5 percent and Recruit Holdings is gaining almost 5 percent, while Hino Motors and Sumitomo Electric Industries are adding almost 4 percent each. Kubota, Subaru, Eisai, MS&AD Insurance and Furukawa Electric are advancing more than 3 percent each, while Resonac Holdings is up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, BayCurrent is declining more than 4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 145 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved to the downside in the latter part of the trading day on Wednesday after showing a lack of direction throughout much of the session. The major averages all moved lower late in the day partly offsetting the strong gains posted in the previous session.

The Dow declined 244.95 points or 0.6 percent to 42,098.70, the Nasdaq fell 98.23 points or 0.5 percent to 19,100.94 and the S&P 500 slid 32.99 points or 0.6 percent to 5,888.55.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index decreased by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Wednesday on news that OPEC will establish output quotas for 2027. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery climbed $0.87 or 1.43 percent to $61.76 per barrel.