Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Wednesday, reversing some of the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 36,900 level, with gains in exporters and financial stocks partially offset by some gains in automaker stocks. Some traders also picked up stocks at a bargain after the recent slump in the martket.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 86.66 or 0.24 percent at 36,879.77, after hitting a low of 36,658.86 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, while Screen Holdings is adding almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining more than 2 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Canon is losing almost 1 percent, while Sony is gaining almost 4 percent, Panasonic is up almost 3 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is surging more than 5 percent.

Among other major gainers, LY Corp is surging more than 6 percent and Concordia Financial Group is gaining almost 5 percent, while Shizuoka Financial Group, Resona Holdings and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are adding more than 4 percent each. Ryohin Keikaku, Tokyo Gas and CyberAgent is up almost 4 percent each, while T&D Holdings, Hitachi, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Fujitsu are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Subaru and Lasertec are losing more than 4 percent each, while Yokogawa Electric is declining more than 3 percent and Sumitomo Heavy Industries is down almost 3 percent.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were flat on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday. That beat forecasts for a decline of 0.1 percent and was down from 0.3 percent in January.

On a yearly basis, producer prices rose 4.0 percent - in line with forecasts and easing from 4.2 percent in the previous month. The export price index was up 0.5 percent on month and 1.2 percent on year, the central bank said, while the import price index added 0.5 percent on month and sank 1.6 percent on year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 148 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks closed on a negative note on Tuesday after a highly volatile session, and the major averages all closed in the red despite a good recovery past mid-afternoon. Worries about global economic outlook and fears of a possible recession in the U.S. due to the trade war hurt investor sentiment.

The Dow settled lower by 478.23 points or 1.14 percent, at 41,433.48, the S&P 500 ended down 42.49 points or 0.76 percent, at 5,572.07 and the Nasdaq settled lower by 32.23 points or 0.18 percent, at 17,436.10. The Nasdaq climbed to 17,687.40 in the final hour, rallying from a low of 17,238.24.

The major European markets also showed significant moves to the downside. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 1.21 percent, Germany's DAX closed down 1.29 percent and France's CAC 40 settled lower by 1.31 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday, bouncing back fairly well on a weaker dollar after dropping to six-month lows in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April added $0.22 or 0.3 percent at $66.25 a barrel.