Japanese Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Extending the gains in the previous three sessions, the Japanese market is notably higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 36,600 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 193.90 points or 0.53 percent to 36,636.33, after touching a high of 36,798.07 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 6 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 2 percent and Honda is adding more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing almost 3 percent, while Advantest is edging down 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is advancing almost 4 percent and Mizuho Financial is adding more than 5 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.4 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is advancing more than 5 percent and Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent, while Sony is losing almost 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is skyrocketing almost 9 percent, Dentsu Group is soaring more than 8 percent and Socionext is surging more than 6 percent, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and ENEOS Holdings are gaining almost 5 percent each. Mitsubishi Electric, Disco, Sumco and Nomura Holdings are adding more than 4 percent each, while Subaru, Mitsui Chemicals and Tokyu Fudosan are advancing almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 147 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Wednesday but managed to end the day mostly higher. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both closed higher for the fifth consecutive session.

The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing in positive territory. The Dow climbed 242.75 points or 0.6 percent to 40,008.39 and the S&P 500 rose 20.78 points or 0.4 percent to 5,455.21, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a more modest gain, inching up 4.99 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 17,192.60.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index increased by 0.6 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by official data showing an unexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended August 9th and a recent downward revision in the oil demand forecast from the International Energy Agency (IEA). West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down by $1.37 or about 1.75% at $76.98 a barrel.