Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Friday, recouping some of the losses in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 moving to nearly 27,800 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, lifted by upbeat earnings and solid outlooks by some major heavyweight companies.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 205.81 points or 0.75 percent to 27,790.16, after touching a high of 27,814.02 earlier. Japanese stocks closed slightly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.2 percent and Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is surging almost 5 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 3 percent. In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining 1.5 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding more than 2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is up almost 2 percent.

Among major exporters, Panasonic and Canon are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 2 percent. Sony is flat. Among the other major gainers, Kobe Steel is skyrocketing 15 percent, Dai Nippon Printing is soaring more than 13 percent, Tokai Carbon is surging more than 9 percent and Toppan is gaining 7.5 percent, while Sumitomo Osaka Cement and Nippon Sheet Glass are adding more than 5 percent each. Nippon Steel is up almost 5 percent, NEXON is rising more than 4 percent and Credit Saison is gaining 3.5 percent, while Concordia Financial, Taiheiyo Cement, T&D Holdings and Terumo are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, NTT Data is losing 5.5 percent, Fujikura is down more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi Estate is declining almost 4 percent.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were flat on month in January, the Bank of Japan said on Friday. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 0.3 percent and down from the upwardly revised 0.7 percent gain in December (originally 0.5 percent). On a yearly basis, producer prices jumped 9.5 percent - again missing forecasts for 9.6 percent following the upwardly revised 10.5 percent spike in the previous month (originally 10.2 percent).

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 131 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a significant downturn over the course of the trading session on Thursday after failing to sustain an initial move to the upside. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and into negative territory.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained firmly in the red. The Dow fell 249.13 points or 0.7 percent to 33,699.88, the Nasdaq slumped 120.94 points or 1.0 percent to 11,789.58 and the S&P 500 slid 36.36 points or 0.9 percent to 4,081.50.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures ended lower Thursday as rising crude inventories in the U.S. and prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $78.06 a barrel.