Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 moving well above the 42,850 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 251.06 points or 0.59 percent at 42,884.35, after touching a high of 43,201.42 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 1 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings is losing almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is flat.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is edging up 0.3 percent and Canon is gaining more than 1 percent, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent. Mitsubishi Electric is flat. Among the other major gainers, Toto is soaring almost 7 percent, Sumitomo Pharma is surging more than 5 percent and Mercari is gaining almost 5 percent, while Amada, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Recruit Holdings are adding more than 4 percent. Socionext, Nidec and Furukawa Electric are rising almost 4 percent each, while Nissan Motor and Taiyo Yuden are advancing more than 3 percent each. Shin-Etsu Chemical, Fanuc and Disco are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Terumo and Konami Group are losing 3.5 percent each, while BANDAI NAMCO, Tokyo Electric Power and Ryohin Keikaku are declining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 147 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move back to the upside during trading on Friday after trending lower over the past several sessions. The major averages all moved sharply higher on the day, with the Dow reaching a new record closing high.

The major averages ended the day well off their best levels but still posted strong gains. The Dow shot up 846.24 points or 1.9 percent to 45,631.74, the Nasdaq surged 396.22 points or 1.9 percent to 21,496.53 and the S&P 500 jumped 96.74 points or 1.5 percent to 6,466.91.

The major European markets also showed significant moves to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index rose by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices rose modestly on Friday as expectations of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal waned with no progress. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.13 or 0.20 percent at $63.65 per barrel.