Japanese Market Sharply Higher; Up 8.7%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading sharply higher on Thursday, reversing the sharp losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is surging almost 9 percent to well above the 34,400 level, with gains across all sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is surging 2,764.38 points or 8.72 percent to 34,478.41, after touching a high of 34,568.46 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is soaring almost 12 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is advancing almost 8 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is surging almost 8 percent and Honda is spiking almost 7 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is skyrocketing more than 15 percent, Tokyo Electron is soaring more than 13 percent and Screen Holdings is surging almost 11 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are soaring more than 11 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is surging more than 8 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is surging almost 12 percent, Canon is advancing almost 10 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is skyrocketing almost 11 percent and Sony soaring almost 13 percent.

Among other major gainers, Konica Minolta, Fanuc and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are skyrocketing almost 16 percent each, while Disco is soaring almost 15 percent. Chiba Bank, Nidec, Lasertec and Sumco are surging almost 14 percent each. Yaskawa Electric, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Renesas Electronics and Concordia Financial are spiking more than 13 percent each. Seiko Epson is gaining almost 13 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 146 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed an astonishingly strong move back to the upside during trading on Wednesday following the nosedive seen over the past several sessions. The major averages all moved sharply higher, posting their biggest one-day gains in years.

The major averages saw continued strength late in the day, reaching new highs for the session. The Nasdaq soared 1,857.06 or 12.2 percent to 17,124.97, the S&P 500 spiked by 474.13 points or 9.5 percent to 5,456.90 and the Dow surged 2,962.86 points or 7.9 percent to 40,608.45.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved sharply lower on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dove by 3.3 percent, the German DAX Index tumbled by 3.0 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 2.9 percent.

Crude oil prices extended their recent nosedive early in the session on Wednesday but showed a substantial turnaround over the course of the day. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery soared $2.77 or 4.7 percent to $62.35 a barrel.