Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Recouping some of the losses in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is modestly higher on Thursday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 38,300 level, with gains in exporter and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 115.14 points or 0.30 percent to 38,317.51, after touching a high of 38,371.44 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent, while Honda is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is flat, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are losing more than 1 percent each.

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

Among the major exporters, Canon is gaining more than 1 percent, Sony is edging up 0.3 percent and Panasonic is adding more than 2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among other major gainers, Omron is skyrocketing almost 12 percent, Yamaha is soaring more than 10 percent, Orix is surging more than 8 percent, IHI is gaining more than 7 percent and Yokogawa Electric is adding more than 4 percent, while AGC and Shiseido are up almost 4 percent each. T&D Holdings and Konica Minolta are advancing more than 3 percent each, while Nintendo and Tokai Carbon are rising almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Yamato Holdings is plummeting almost 11 percent, Taiyo Yuden is plunging more than 7 percent, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is slipping almost 6 percent, Mitsubishi Motors is losing more than 5 percent and ZOZO is declining more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 157 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, extending the lackluster performance seen during Tuesday's session. Despite the choppy trading, the Dow closed higher for the sixth straight day, reaching its best closing level in over a month.

The major averages eventually finished the day mixed. While the Dow climbed 172.13 points or 0.4 percent to 39,056.39, the S&P 500 edged down 0.03 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,187.67 and the Nasdaq dipped 29.80 points or 0.2 percent to 16,302.76.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.7 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Wednesday after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude inventories rose last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.61 or 0.78 percent at $78.99 per barrel.