Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading slightly higher on Tuesday, adding the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving a tad above the 39,200 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 46.20 points or 0.12 percent at 39,206.70, after touching a high of 39,465.14 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining 2.5 percent and Toyota is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining 2.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding more than 2 percent, while Advantest is flat.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 1 percent, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is gaining more than 3 percent, Sony is advancing more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 2 percent, while Canon is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Omron, Shiseido and Sumitomo Metal Mining are surging almost 5 percent each, while Toto, Marubeni, Yaskawa Electric and Sumitomo Pharma are advancing more than 4 percent each. Fanuc, Suzuki Motor and Mitsui & Co. are gaining almost 4 percent each, while Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Mitsubishi Materials and Sumco are adding more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Fujikura is declining more than 5 percent and DeNA is losing almost 3 percent.

In economic news, the M2 money stock in Japan was up 1.2 percent on year in November, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday - standing at 1,255.0 trillion yen. That was in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous two months.

The M3 money stock rose an annual 0.7 percent for the third straight month, coming in at 1,605.7 trillion yen. The L money stock rose 3.2 percent on year to 2,184.6 trillion yen, up from 3.1 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 151 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Monday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. The major averages all moved to the downside, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 pulling back off last Friday's record closing highs.

The major averages finished the day firmly in negative territory. The Dow fell 240.59 points or 0.5 percent to 44,401.93, the Nasdaq slid 123.08 points or 0.6 percent to 19,736.69 and the S&P 500 declined 37.42 points or 0.6 percent to 6,052.85.

Meanwhile, European stocks moved mostly higher on the day. The French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.5 percent, although the German DAX Index bucked the uptrend and dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on geopolitical tensions and optimism that the Chinese central bank will loosen its monetary policy to boost economic growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.17 or 1.74 percent at $68.37 a barrel.