Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Thursday, extending the slight gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 37,200 level, with gains across most sectors led by exporters, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 395.05 points or 1.07 percent to 37,214.14, after touching a high of 37,326.27 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 1 percent and Honda is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is surging more than 6 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding 1.5 percent and Screen Holdings is up almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are adding 1.5 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is gaining almost 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 1 percent, Sony is advancing 1.5 percent and Canon is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among other major gainers, Disco is surging almost 6 percent, Japan Steel Works is gaining more than 4 percent and Ryohin Keikaku is advancing almost 4 percent, while Taiyo Yuden, Sompo Holdings, Denka and TDK are adding more than 3 percent each. Tokio Marine, Fujikura, Seven & I Holdings, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Shizuoka Financial, Nikon and Credit Saison are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 148 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after seeing considerable volatility early in the session. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 regained ground after ending Tuesday's trading at their lowest closing levels in six months.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher, jumping 212.35 points or 1.2 percent to 17,648.45. The S&P 500 also climbed 27.23 points or 0.5 percent to 5,599.30, although the narrower Dow bucked the uptrend and dipped 82.55 points or 0.2 percent to 41,350.93.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index surged by 1.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Wednesday after data showed a smaller than expected increase in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $1.43 or 2.16 percent at $67.68 a barrel.