Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Monday, snapping a six-session losing streak. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving a tad above the 39,000 mark, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 308.41 or 0.80 percent at 39,010.31, after touching a high of 39,088.03 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is also adding almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is adding more than 1 percent, Advantest is advancing almost 4 percent and Screen Holdings is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.4 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Canon is edging up 0.4 percent and Sony is adding almost 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Hino Motors is gaining more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi Motors is adding more than 3 percent, while Sharp, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Recruit Holdings are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 156 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Friday after ending the previous session little changed. The major averages recovered from initial weakness and climbed firmly into positive territory as the day progressed.

The Dow surged 498.02 points or 1.2 percent to 42,840.26, adding to the slim gain posted in Thursday's session, when the blue chip index snapped a ten-day losing streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also jumped 199.83 points or 1.0 percent to 19,572.60 and the S&P 500 shot up 63.77 points or 1.1 percent to 5,930.85.

Meanwhile, European stocks climbed well off their worst levels but still ended the day modestly lower. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both slipped by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Friday as the dollar came off two-year highs after soft PCE readings eased concerns about the outlook for interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures perked $0.08 or about 0.1 percent to $69.46 a barrel. Oil futures shed 2.5 percent in the week.