Japanese Market Is Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Adding to the sharp gains in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is trading notably higher on Tuesday after opening in the red, with the Nikkei 225 moving well above the 38,800 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The markets reacted to domestic data showing unemployment rate edged lower to 2.4 percent in September from 2.5 percent in August, the lowest in eight months.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 242.80 points or 0.63 percent at 38,848.33, after touching a high of 38,881.86 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.1 percent and Toyota is also edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining almost 3 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding more than 2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 1 percent, while Panasonic and Sony are gaining almost 1 percent each. Canon is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the other major gainers, M3 is surging almost 5 percent, Shionogi & Co. is gaining more than 4 percent and Nitto Denko is adding almost 4 percent, while Furukawa Electric, IHI and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are advancing more than 3 percent each. Astellas Pharma and Renesas Electronics are rising almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Toto is plummeting almost 13 percent and Tokuyama is losing 3.5 percent.

In economic news, the unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.4 percent in September, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Tuesday. That was below expectations for 2.5 percent, which would have been unchanged from the August reading.

The jobs-to-applicant ratio was 1.24 - beating forecasts for 1.23, which again would have been unchanged from the previous month. The participation rate was 63.5 percent, shy of forecasts for 63.6 percent, which would have been steady from a month prior.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 152 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Monday but managed to end the day mostly higher after showing a strong move to the upside early in the session. The major averages all finished the day in positive territory after turning in mixed performances over the two previous sessions.

The Dow advanced 273.17 points or 0.7 percent to 42,387.57, the Nasdaq climbed 48.58 points or 0.3 percent to 18,567.19 and the S&P 500 rose 15.40 points or 0.3 percent to 5,821.52.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday as concerns about supply disruptions faded after Israel avoided hitting Iranian oil facilities over the weekend. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December plunged $4.40 or 6.1 percent at $67.38 a barrel.