Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly higher on Monday after opening in the red, reversing the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The Nikkei 225 moving above the 38,800 level, despite weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 37.56 points or 0.10 percent at 38,824.58, after hitting a low of 38,606.32 and a high of 38,851.80 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is sliding more than 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is flat.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic is declining almost 2 percent, while Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are losing more than 1 percent each. Canon is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among the other major gainers, DeNA is skyrocketing more than 23 percent, Taiyo Yuden is soaring almost 17 percent, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is surging more than 6 percent and JGC Holdings is gaining more than 5 percent, while Sumco, Japan Exchange Group and IHI are adding more than 4 percent each. Comsys Holdings is advancing almost 4 percent, while Murata Manufacturing and Mitsubishi Chemical Group are up more than 3 percent each. Yaskawa Electric, Shiseido and NEXON are rising almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Subaru and Taisei are losing almost 5 percent each.

In economic news, overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.0 percent on year in January, the Bank of Japan said on Monday - coming in at 635.707 trillion yen. That's unchanged from the December reading following a downward revision from 3.1 percent. Excluding trusts, lending was up an annual 3.3 percent at 557.569 trillion yen, while lending from trusts rose 0.9 percent on year to 78.138 trillion yen. Lending from foreign banks jumped 13.3 percent to 4.910 trillion yen, slowing from the 23.0 percent jump in the previous month.

Japan posted a current account surplus of 1.077 trillion yen in December, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday - up 17.8 percent on year. It was, however, shy of expectations for a surplus of 1.362 trillion yen and down from the 3.353 trillion yen surplus in November. Exports were down 0.9 percent on year at 9.473 trillion yen and imports dipped an annual 0.3 percent to 9.411 trillion yen for a surplus of 62.3 billion yen. The capital account saw a deficit of 18.4 billion yen, while the financial account had a surplus of 2.429 trillion yen.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Friday, giving back ground after trending higher over the past few sessions. The major averages turned negative within the first hour of trading and saw further downside as the day progressed.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained firmly negative. The Nasdaq dove 268.59 points or 1.3 percent to 19,523.40, the Dow tumbled 444.23 points or 1.0 percent to 44,303.40 and the S&P 500 slumped 57.58 points or 1.0 percent to 6,025.99.

The major European markets all also moved lower on the day. The German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index declined by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Iran's crude exports, although a stronger dollar limited oil's gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March rose $0.39 or 0.5 percent at $71.00 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed 2 percent in the week.