Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Friday, recouping the losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 moving above the 32,100 level to climb back toward fresh 33-year highs, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, boosted by gains across most sectors, led by technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 502.90 points or 1.59 percent to 32,144.17, after touching a high of 32,240.05 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging up 0.5 percent each.

Among major exporters, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are adding almost 1 percent each, while Sony is gaining more than 2 percent. Panasonic is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Konami Group is surging almost 5 percent, while Daiichi Sankyo and Chugai Pharmaceutical are gaining almost 4 percent each. Itochu, Daikin Industries, Mitsui & Co., Kansai Electric Power and Marubeni are adding more than 3 percent each, while NEXON, Sapporo Holdings, Secom, Yaskawa Electric, Toyota Tsusho and Sumitomo Realty & Development are all up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, the M2 money stock in Japan was up 2.7 percent on year in May, the Bank of Japan said on Friday - coming in at 1,236.4 trillion yen. That was in line with expectations following the upwardly revised 2.6 percent increase in April (originally 2.5 percent). The M3 money stock was up an annual 2.1 percent for the third straight month, now at 1,591.2 trillion yen. The M1 was up 4.4 percent at 1,073.4 trillion yen, while the L money stock rose 2.4 percent to 2,112.1 trillion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 139 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq showing a significant rebound following the sharp pullback seen on Wednesday. With the upward move, the S&P 500 reached its best closing level in well over nine months.

The major averages ended the day just off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq jumped 133.63 points or 1.0 percent to 13,238.52, the S&P 500 climbed 26.41 points or 0.6 percent to 4,293.93 and the Dow rose 168.59 points or 0.5 percent to 33,833.61.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index inched up by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices regained ground after a midday sell-off but still ended Thursday's trading session firmly in negative territory as concerns about the outlook for energy demand continued to weigh on the markets. West Texas Intermediate for July shed $1.24 or 1.7 percent at $71.29 a barrel.