Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market trading is significantly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 50,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 455.47 points or 0.91 percent to 50,320.15, after touching a high of 50,356.54 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging almost 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is up almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 1 percent and Honda is adding almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.4 percent, while Tokyo Electron is adding almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is up more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 2 percent, while Canon, Panasonic and Sony are adding almost 1 percent each.

Among other major gainers, Yaskawa Electric and Fanuc are soaring more than 7 percent each, while Renesas Electronics is surging more than 6 percent. Mercari is jumping more than 5 percent and SHIFT is gaining more than 4 percent, while Disco and Sumitomo Metal Mining are adding more than 3 percent each. SMC, Keyence, BayCurrent, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Socionext and NGK Insulators are all advancing more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sumitomo Electric Industries is losing more than 3 percent, while Ebara and Furukawa Electric are declining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 155 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. While the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 posted modest gains, the narrower Dow showed a more notable move to the upside.

The major averages all finished the day in positive territory. The Dow jumped 408.44 points or 0.9 percent to 47,882.90, the Nasdaq rose 40.42 points or 0.2 percent to 23,454.09 and the S&P 500 climbed 20.35 points or 0.3 percent to 6,849.72.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices rose on Wednesday as proposed Russia-Ukraine peace talks failed to deliver a breakthrough. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.23 or 0.39 percent at $58.87 per barrel.