Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Recouping some of the sharp losses in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Tuesday, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 38,500 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 400.69 points or 1.05 percent at 38,503.13, after touching a high of 38,510.09 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.4 percent.

The major exporters are mixed. Panasonic is gaining almost 1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.2 percent, while Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Among the other major gainers, Dowa Holdings and TDK are surging more than 7 percent each, while Nissan Chemical and Rakuten Group are gaining more than 4 percent each. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is up more than 3 percent, while Konami Group, DeNA, Nintendo, Murata Manufacturing, Fujitsu, NEXON, JTEKT, Sumco and Asahi Group are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Mercari is losing almost 4 percent and Takeda Pharmaceutical is declining more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 157 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction early in the session on Monday but moved notably higher over course of the trading day. The major averages all moved to the upside, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs.

The major averages pulled back off their best levels going into the close but remained firmly positive. The Nasdaq jumped 168.14 points or 1.0 percent to 17,857.02, the S&P 500 advanced 41.63 points or 0.8 percent to 5,473.23 and the Dow climbed 188.94 points or 0.5 percent to 38,778.10.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index rose 0.4 percent and the French CAC 40 Index advanced 0.9 percent.

Crude oil prices rose to a fresh six-week high on Monday on hopes about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended higher by $1.88 or about 1.25 percent at $80.33 a barrel, the highest settlement since April 29.