Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Tuesday after a long weekend, extending the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 27,000 mark, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across all sectors, particularly financial and technology stocks.

Trader are cautiously looking ahead to the Bank of Japan's policy meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, which is expected to keep its ultra-loose policy in place amid concerns the yen's decades-low weakness will add to the cost of imported commodities and widen the country's trade deficit.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 226.24 points or 0.84 percent at 27,014.71, after touching a high of 27,043.58 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Friday and the market was closed on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining 1.5 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Screen Holdings is adding more than 2 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 2 percent each.

The major exporters are strong, with Sony gaining almost 3 percent and Mitsubishi Electric edging up 0.5 percent, while Panasonic and Canon are adding almost 1 percent each. Among the other major gainers, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is surging almost 6 percent, while Inpex and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are gaining more than 4 percent each. Kikkoman is adding almost 4 percent, while IHI Corp., Sumitomo Metal Mining, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Hitachi Construction Machinery, JGC Holdings, Nippon Yusen K.K. and Pacific Metals are all up more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Daiichi Sankyo is losing almost 4 percent and Kansai Electric Power is down more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 138 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside in early trading on Monday but saw a substantial downturn over the course of the session. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and into negative territory.

After surging by more than 350 points early in the session, the Dow fell 215.65 points or 0.7 percent to 31,072.61. The Nasdaq also slumped 92.37 points or 0.8 percent to 11,360.05, while the S&P 500 slid 32.31 points or 0.8 percent to 3,830.85.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.7 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both advanced by 0.9 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Monday with traders assessing crude supply levels amid concerns over gas supply from Russia. A weak dollar also contributed significantly to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for August ended higher by $5.01 or 5.1 percent at $102.60 a barrel.