Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Reversing the losses in the previous session, the Japanese market is significantly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving a tad above the 38,400 level, with gains in exporters, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 449.68 points or 1.18 percent to 38,401.48, after touching a high of 38,408.19 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing 1.5 percent, while Honda is edging up 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent, Screen Holdings is declining more than 1 percent and Advantest is advancing more than 3 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.3 percent, while Sony and Panasonic are adding almost 1 percent each. Mitsubishi Electric is flat.

Among other major gainers, Sumitomo Pharma is soaring more than 8 percent, IHI is surging more than 7 percent, Mercari is gaining almost 7 percent, Chugai Pharmaceutical is advancing more than 5 percent and M3 is adding almost 5 percent, while Eisai and Renesas Electronics are advancing more than 4 percent each. Omron is rising almost 4 percent, while Konica Minolta, Astellas Pharma and Shin-Etsu Chemical are up more than 3 percent each. Nitori Holdings is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Chiba Bank is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 145 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved back to the upside during trading on Wednesday following the modest pullback seen in the previous session. The major averages fluctuated over the course of the trading day but managed to close in positive territory.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed higher for the ninth time in the past ten sessions. The Nasdaq climbed 102.05 points or 0.6 percent to 17,918.99 and the S&P 500 rose 23.73 points or 0.4 percent to 5,620.85, while the narrower Dow inched up 55.52 points or 0.1 percent to 40,890.49.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both climbed by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices fell to a seven-month low on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand, despite data showing a big drop in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended August 16th. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.24 or about 1.7 percent at $71.93 a barrel.