Japanese Market Is Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Tuesday, recouping the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 staying above the 29,100 level, following the mixed cues from global markets overnight, with gains across most sectors, led by technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 186.07 points or 0.64 percent at 29,135.95, after touching a high of 29,180.75 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is adding 1.5 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is flat.

The major exporters are higher. Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Sony is adding almost 2 percent. Canon is flat. Among the other major gainers, JFE Holdings is soaring more than 14 percent and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is surging almost 6 percent, while Fuji Electric and Nippon Steel are gaining more than 4 percent. Kobe Steel is adding almost 4 percent and Mitsui & Co. is up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Ricoh is plunging 8.5 percent.

In economic news, the average of household spending in Japan was down 0.8 percent on month in March, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Tuesday - coming in at 312,758 yen. That missed expectations for an increase of 1.5 percent following the 2.4 percent contraction in February. On a yearly basis, household spending slumped 1.9 percent - again missing forecasts for an increase of 0.4 percent following the 1.6 percent gain in the previous month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 135 yen-range on Tuesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Monday, following the significant rebound seen during last Friday's session. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the session narrowly mixed. While the Dow edged down 55.69 points or 0.2 percent to 33,618.69, the S&P 500 crept up 1.87 points or 0.1 percent to 4,138.12 and the Nasdaq rose 21.50 points or 0.2 percent to 12,256.92.

The major European markets also turned in a lackluster performance on the day. While the U.K. markets were closed on the day, the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Monday amid optimism about the outlook for energy demand thanks to last week's fairly encouraging non-farm payrolls data. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for June ended higher by $1.82 or 2.6 percent at $73.16 a barrel.