The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Friday, snapping a five-session losing streak, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 just below the 26,400 level, following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as picked up stocks at a bargain after the recent sell-off amid the continued escalation of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Technology stocks bounced back with strong gains to mirror their peers on tech-heavy Nasdaq.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 412.23 points or 1.59 percent to 26,383.05, after touching a high of 26,419.89 earlier. Japanese shares closed sharply lower on Thursday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.3 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is surging more than 6 percent, Screen Holdings is gaining more than 5 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding more than 4 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing more than 1 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are declining almost 2 percent each.
Among major exporters, Panasonic is gaining almost 2 percent, Sony is adding almost 3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric up more than 1 percent and Canon is rising almost 1 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is gaining almost 6 percent and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is adding more than 5 percent, while M3 and Z Holdings are up more than 4 percent each. Rakuten Group, Keyence and Ebara are rising almost 4 percent each, while Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Olympus and Trend Micro are adding more than 3 percent each.
Conversely, Fukuoka Financial Group is losing almost 8 percent, while Concordia Financial and Chiba Bank are sliding almost 7 percent each. Inpex and Resona Holdings and down more than 5 percent each, while Shizuoka Bank, Tokio Marine Holdings and Sompo Holdings are slipping more than 4 percent each. T&D Holdings is declining almost 4 percent, while Dai-ichi Life Holdings and Tokyo Gas are slumping more than 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 115 yen-range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks staged a stunning turnaround over the course of the trading session on Thursday after moving sharply lower at the start of trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a particularly strong rebound after hitting its lowest intraday level in almost a year.
The Nasdaq spiked 436.10 points or 3.3 percent to 13,473.59 after tumbling by as much as 3.4 percent in early trading. The Dow also rose 92.07 points or 0.3 percent to 33,223.83 after plunging by nearly 860 points, while the S&P 500 jumped 63.20 points or 1.5 percent at 4,288.70.
Meanwhile, the major European markets showed substantial moves to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index has plummeted by 4 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index dove by 3.9 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices settled moderately higher on Thursday, with traders weighing the possible impact on global supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended up by $0.71 or about 0.8% at $92.81 a barrel, climbing down from a high of $100.54 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Sharply Higher
2022-02-25 02:20:35
