Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - Recouping the losses in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is sharply higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 36,600 level, with gains across all sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 982.98 points or 2.76 percent to 36,602.75, after touching a high of 36,873.37 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 8 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 3 percent and Honda is adding more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 4 percent, Advantest is surging than 7 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 2 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Canon is gaining 1.5 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 4 percent, Panasonic is advancing more than 2 percent and Sony is up more than 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Ebara is skyrocketing almost 10 percent and IHI is soaring almost 9 percent, while Tokuyama and NEC are surging almost 7 percent each. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Omron, Hitachi and Fujikura are gaining almost 5 percent each, while Chugai Pharmaceutical, Fujitsu, Kuraray and UBE are adding more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, Daiichi Sankyo is losing almost 3 percent.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower early in the session on Wednesday but showed a substantial turnaround over the course of the trading day. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the recovery, with all of the major averages ending the day in positive territory.

After tumbling by as much as 1.4 percent in early trading, the Nasdaq surged 369.65 points or 2.2 percent to 17,395.53. The S&P 500 also jumped 58.61 points or 1.1 percent to 5,554.13, while the Dow rose 124.75 points or 0.3 percent to 40,861.71 after hitting its lowest intraday level in almost a month.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices surged higher on Wednesday, recovering from a three-year low in the previous session thanks to fears of prolonged production shutdowns in the offshore oil patch due to Hurricane Francine. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended up by $1.56 or 2.37 percent at $67.31 a barrel.