Japanese Market Significantly Higher

Adding to the gains in the previous three sessions, the Japanese market is significantly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 38,500 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks, partially offset by weakness in automakers.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 277.27 points or 0.71 percent to 38,553.66, after touching a high of 39,632.30 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining 1.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.2 percent and Honda is also edging down 0.2 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.1 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.3 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Canon is gaining more than 2 percent and Sony is edging up 0.1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are adding more than 1 percent each.

Among other major gainers, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is surging more than 5 percent and Keio is gaining almost 5 percent, while Sumitomo Electric Industries, Recruit Holdings and Ebara are adding almost 4 percent each. Fujikura, IHI and Casio Computer are more than 3 percent each, while Japan Exchange Group and Kuraray are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Daiichi Sankyo and Isetan Mitsukoshi are declining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 150 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday following the lackluster performance seen in the previous session. The major averages all climbed to new record closing highs after ending mixed for two straight days.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher, jumping by 254.21 points or 1.3 percent to 19,735.16. The Dow also advanced 308.51 points or 0.7 percent to 45,014.04, while the S&P 500 climbed 36.61 points or 0.6 percent to 6,086.49.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.7 percent and the German DAX Index jumped by 1.1 percent.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Wednesday on geopolitical concerns in the Middle East and in the Russia/Ukraine conflict, as well as political chaos in South Korea and France. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed down $1.40 or 2 percent at $68.54 a barrel.

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