Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Monday, reversing the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving up to near the 38,900 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 430.48 points or 1.12 percent at 38,881.94, after touching a high of 38,966.97 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is up almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding almost 1 percent and Toyota is gaining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Screen Holdings is adding almost 5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 2 percent, Mizuho Financial is adding more than 2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is up more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are gaining 1.5 percent each, while Sony is up more than 1 percent and Canon is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Daiichi Sankyo is surging more than 6 percent, Taiheiyo Cement is advancing almost 4 percent and Resonac Holdings is gaining more than 3 percent, while Fanuc, Hitachi, Subaru, Konica Minolta and Japan Steel Works are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Friday, with the major averages more than offsetting the losses posted in the previous session. With the upward move, the Dow ended the day at its best closing level in a month.

The major averages pulled back off their best levels in the latter part of the session but remained firmly positive. The Nasdaq surged 291.91 points or 1.5 percent to 19,630.20, the S&P 500 jumped 59.32 points or 1.0 percent to 5,996.66 and the Dow climbed 334.70 points or 0.8 percent to 43,487.83.

The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index surged 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index shot up 1.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices showed a notable move to the downside on Friday, extending the sharp pullback seen in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate for February delivery was down $0.80 or 1 percent to $77.88 a barrel on Friday; for the week, crude rose about 1 percent.