Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Monday, reversing some of the sharp losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 moving up to near the 34,000 mark, with gains across all sectors led by technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 396.53 points or 1.18 percent at 33,982.11, after touching a high of 34,325.59 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 4 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is up more than 2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding almost 3 percent.

The major exporters are higher. Panasonic and Canon are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.3 percent and Sony is adding 1.5 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Alps Alpine are gaining almost 5 percent each, while TDK, Eisai, Kao and Sumco are adding more than 4 percent each. Shionogi & Co., Kyowa Kirin, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Nomura Research Institute, BayCurrent and Nitori Holdings are advancing almost 4 percent each, while Astellas Pharma and Sumitomo Metal Mining are up more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Aeon is declining more than 5 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 142 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Friday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. The major averages all showed strong moves to the upside, partly offsetting the substantial pullback seen during Thursday's session.

The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, hovering firmly in positive territory. The Nasdaq shot up 337.14 points or 2.1 percent to 16,724.46, the S&P 500 surged 95.31 points or 1.8 percent to 5.363.36 and the Dow jumped 619.05 points or 1.6 percent to 40,212.71.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.9 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Friday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery surged $1.43 or to $61.50 a barrel, partly offsetting the $2.28 or 3.7 percent slump to $60.07 a barrel seen during Thursday's session.