Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Monday, extending the gains of the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 adding almost 400 points to be above the 27,900 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday as a positive reaction to upbeat earnings news and signs of economic revival fueled investor risk appetite.
Traders continue to be concerned amid the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus variants even as the Tokyo Olympics takes off successfully.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 394.11 points or 1.43 percent at 27,942.22, after touching a high of 28,036.47 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Wednesday and were closed for holidays on Thursday and Friday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.3 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.
The major exporters are higher, with Panasonic gaining almost 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric adding more than 1 percent and Sony up almost 2 percent, while Canon is flat.
In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Screen Holdings is adding more than 2 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.5 percent, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is up almost 2 percent.
Among the other major gainers, JFE Holdings is gaining more than 6 percent and Toray Industries is adding more than 5 percent, while CyberAgent, Tokai Carbon, Nippon Steel and Hitachi Zosen are up more than 4 percent each. Tokyo Tatemono, Omron, Tokyo Tatemono and Kobe Steel are rising almost 4 percent each, while Toyobo, Nikon, Ebara, Minebea Mitsumi and Taiyo Yuden are higher by more than 3 percent each.
Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power is losing almost 3 percent.
In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to expand in July, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Monday, with a manufacturing PMI score of 52.2. That’s down from 52.4, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the services PMI fell to 46.4 from 47.2 in June, while the composite index slipped to 47.7 from 48.9.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 110 yen-range on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Friday, extending the rebound from the steep drop seen on Monday. With the continued advance, the major averages all reached new record closing highs.
The major averages finished the session just off their highs of the day. The Dow climbed 238.20 points or 0.7 percent to 35,061.55, the Nasdaq surged up 152.39 points or 1 percent to 14,836.99 and the S&P 500 jumped 44.31 points or 1 percent to 4,411.79.
The major European markets all also moved notably higher on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index surged up by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index jumped by 1 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.9 percent.
Crude oil futures settled modestly higher on Friday, extending gains to a fourth straight session on hopes demand will see a significant increase in coming months. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up by $0.16 or 0.2 percent at $72.07 a barrel. WTI Crude futures gained 0.4 percent in the week.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Sharply Higher
2021-07-26 02:28:16
