Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably higher on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving to near the 39,200 mark, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 235.22 or 0.60 percent at 39,172.76, after touching a high of 39,456.28 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent and Toyota is losing almost 1 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is edging up 0.3 percent and Canon is gaining 1.5 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

Among other major gainers, Seven & I Holdings and Mercari are gaining almost 4 percent each, while Lasertec and IHI are adding more than 3 percent each. M3, Nitori Holdings, BANDAI NAMCO, Rakuten Group and Taiyo Yuden are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Idemitsu Kosan is declining more than 3 percent and Inpex is losing almost 3 percent.

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

On the Wall Street, stocks moved higher on Tuesday, with technology stocks turning in a strong performance. Pushing geopolitical concerns and interest-rate uncertainty aside, investors picked up stocks, choosing to focus on the earnings season.

The major averages all ended on a firm note. The Dow ended the day with a gain of 126.13 points or 0.3 percent at 42,080.37, the S&P 500 settled at 5,751.13, gaining 55.19 points or 0.97 percent and the Nasdaq ended higher by 259.01 points or 1.45 percent at 18,182.92.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed down 1.36 percent, Germany's DAX ended lower by 0.2 percent and France's CAC 40 settled 0.72 percent lower.

Crude oil prices tumbled Tuesday as supply disruptions concerns eased a bit on reports Israel is unlikely to attack Iranian oil facilities. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $3.57 or 4.63 percent at $73.57 a barrel.