Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Wednesday, extending the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 26,400 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, aided by gains in exporters, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 278.30 points or 1.06 percent at 26,453.86, after touching a high of 26,479.99 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron, Screen Holdings and Advantest are gaining more than 1 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are adding almost 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining more than 2 percent and Canon is adding more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are up almost 1 percent each.

Among the other major gainers, Yaskawa Electric is surging more than 6 percent, while Fanuc and Hoya are gaining more than 4 percent each. Keyence and Fujitsu are adding more than 3 percent each, while M3, Nikon and Seven & I Holdings are up almost 3 percent each. Conversely, there are no major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 132 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks climbed higher and settled on a firm note on Tuesday after swinging between gains and losses till a little past noon. Optimism surrounding China's reopening helped offset concerns about interest rates.

The major averages all ended with strong gains. The Dow ended higher by 186.45 points or 0.56 percent at 33,704.10. The S&P 500 settled at 3,919.25, up 27.16 points or 0.7 percent from the previous close. The Nasdaq climbed 106.98 points or 1.01 percent to settle at 10,742.63.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 0.39 percent, Germany's DAX ended 0.12 percent down, and France's CAC 40 drifted down 0.55 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday, gaining for a fourth straight session, amid expectations energy demand will pick up after China decided to reopen its economy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.49 or about 0.7 percent at $75.12 a barrel.