Japanese Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly higher in post-holiday trading on Tuesday after opening well in the green, and briefly slipping in to the red, recouping the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 44,800 level, with gains in automakers and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 40.70 points or 0.09 percent at 44,808.82, after touching a record all-time high of 45,055.38 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower Friday ahead of the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding more than 1 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is surging almost 5 percent, Advantest is edging up 0.3 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding almost 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are all losing almost 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Sony is losing 1.5 percent and Canon is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Sumco is jumping more than 8 percent, while Resonac Holdings and Disco are surging more than 5 percent each. GS Yuasa and Socionext are gaining more than 3 percent each, while IHI is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Nintendo is declining almost 4 percent, Mercari is losing more than 3 percent and Ryohin Keikaku is down almost 3 percent.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Monday, adding to the strong gains posted last week. With the continued upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.

The Nasdaq jumped 207.65 points or 0.9 percent to 22,348.75 and the S&P 500 climbed 30.99 points or 0.5 percent to 6,615.28. The narrower Dow posted a more modest gain, inching up 49.23 points or 0.1 percent to 45,883.45.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index jumped by 0.9 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.2 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Monday amid brewing Middle East tensions and the heightening Russia-Ukraine war even as softening demand concerns surface. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.58 or 0.93 percent at $63.27 per barrel.