Japanese Market Sharply Higher; Up 2%

(RTTNews) - Recouping the losses in the previous session, the Japanese market is sharply higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving more than 2 percent to be a tad above the 38,600 level, with gains across all sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

Traders reacted to Japan's newly appointed Economy Minister's comments that the central bank should be careful about raising rates again as it takes time to completely exit deflation.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 791.59 points or 2.09 percent to 38,600.35, after touching a high of 38,856.75 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also adding more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 3 percent and Honda is adding more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 3 percent, Advantest is adding more than 4 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing more than 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.3 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is declining almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Panasonic is advancing more than 3 percent.

Among other major gainers, M3 is soaring more than 8 percent, while Disco and Sumitomo Pharma are surging more than 6 percent each. TDK and Mazda Motor are gaining more than 5 percent each, while Mitsubishi Motors, Taiyo Yuden, Lasertec and Daiichi Sankyo are adding almost 5 percent each. Tokio Marine, Subaru, Renesas Electronics, Ajinomoto and JTEKT are advancing more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 146 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Wednesday after recovering from an early move to the downside. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing slightly higher.

The Dow edged up 39.55 points or 0.1 percent to 42,196.52, the Nasdaq inched up 14.76 points or 0.1 percent to 17,925.12 and the S&P 500 crept up 0.79 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,709.54.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices settled modestly higher on Wednesday as traders bet on a likely drop in supplies due the ongoing tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for November ended up $0.27 or 0.39 percent at $70.10 a barrel.