Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 staying just below the 27,300 level, despite the negative cues from Wall Street overnight, on news that the Japanese government has fully lifted its COVID-19 quasi-emergency measures that would be boost to the economy. However, traders remain cautious and continue to monitor developments surrounding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 444.32 points or 1.66 percent at 27,271.75, after touching a high of 27,284.47 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Friday prior to an extended weekend with a holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing are gaining 1.5 percent each. Among automakers, Honda is rising 1.5 percent and Toyota is adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are adding 1.5 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 2 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 3 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is surging more than 5.5 percent and Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher, with Panasonic gaining almost 1 percent, while Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are adding more than 1 percent each. Canon is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Inpex is soaring more than 10 percent, Mitsubishi is surging almost 7 percent and Tokio Marine is gaining more than 6 percent, while T&D Holdings, Dai-ichi Life and Resona Holdings are adding almost 6 percent each. Sumitomo and Mitsui & Co. are up more than 5 percent each, while Marubeni and Concordia Financial are advancing more than 4 percent. Idemitsu Kosan, Daikin Industries, Sojitz and Yamaha are rising almost 4 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 119 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Monday but largely maintained a negative bias throughout the session. The major averages gave back ground following the strong upward move seen on Wall Street last week.