Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 moving above the 28,800 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in exporters and technology stocks, which mirrored their peers on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Traders are also cautious in making moves ahead of an expected hawkish message from the US Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium later today.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 297.31 points or 1.04 percent to 28,776.32, after touching a high of 28,792.93 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging up 0.4 percent each.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is flat, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each.

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

Among the other major gainers, Unitika is surging more than 6 percent and Toray Industries is gaining almost 4 percent, while Toray Industries, Komatsu and Yamaha are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 136 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks closed on a strong note on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session, with several counters seeing sustained buying ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech in the Jackson Hole Symposium.Powell is widely expected to reiterate the central bank's hawkish stance, given the expectations that inflation in the U.S. will be persistent and it will take time to contain it.

The major averages all ended with impressive gains. The Dow surged 322.55 points or 0.98 percent to 33,291.78. The S&P 500 climbed 38.55 points or 1.41 percent to 4,199.12, while the Nasdaq ended stronger by 207.74 points or 1.67 percent at 12,639.27.

The major European markets also moved mostly to the upside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.11 percent and Germany's DAX surged 0.39 percent, while France's CAC 40 edged down 0.08 percent.

Crude oil futures settled lower Thursday, after posting gains in the previous two sessions. Oil prices fell as traders weighed the prospects for the return of Iranian oil to the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended lower by $2.37 or 2.5 percent at $92.52 a barrel.