Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Wednesday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 39,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 440.20 or 1.13 percent at 39,343.88, after touching a high of 39,352.58 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is flat. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.2 percent, while Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing almost 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings are gaining more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is flat.

Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining almost 2 percent and Panasonic is edging up 0.2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are adding almost 1 percent each.

Among other major gainers, Disco is skyrocketing almost 11 percent and Fujikura is surging more than 5 percent, while Lasertech, Keyence and Tokyo Electric Power are gaining more than 4 percent each. Furukawa Electric, Kansai Electric Power, Nikon, Renesas Electronics and SMC are adding more than 3 percent each, while Chubu Electric Power, Hoya, Toppan Holdings and Daiichi Sankyo are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Hino Motors is plummeting more than 11 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 153 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved higher during trading on Monday but returned to the mixed performance seen to close out the previous week on Tuesday. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a notable advance to reach a new record closing high, the Dow closed lower for the sixth time in the past seven sessions.

The Nasdaq climbed 145.56 points or 0.8 percent to 18,712.75, extending its winning streak to four days. The S&P 500 also rose 9.40 points or 0.2 percent to 5,832.92, but the Dow fell 154.52 points or 0.4 percent to 42,233.05.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.6 percent and the German DAX Index dipped by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower again on Tuesday amid concerns crude supplies will far exceed near term demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $0.17 or about 0.25 percent at $67.21 a barrel.