TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Thursday, with a weak yen and higher crude oil prices lifting investor sentiment.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 344.69 points or 2.04 percent to 17,251.23, off a high of 17265.67 in early trades.
Among the major exporters, Sony is adding 0.8 percent, Canon is up 0.4 percent and Sharp is rising 0.8 percent. Market heavyweight Fast Retailing is advancing almost 4 percent.
Shares of Mitsubishi Motors are losing more than 15 percent after the automaker admitted that it manipulated mileage test data for its minicars sold in Japan.
Among the other major automakers, Toyota is gaining 2 percent and Honda is up almost 2 percent. In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining 0.3 percent.
In the oil sector, Inpex is rising 3 percent and refiner JX Holdings is up 0.6 percent.
Among the other gainers, Fujifilm Holdings is rising more than 4 percent, while Isuzu and Fuji Heavy Industries are higher by 4 percent each. Meanwhile, Meidensha Corp. is losing 9 percent and Yaskawa Electric Corp. is down almost 7 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the upper 109 yen-level on Thursday, up from Wednesday's close in the upper 108 yen range in Tokyo.
On Wall Street, stocks closed higher on Wednesday, but well off their highs, partly due to another substantial rebound by the price of crude oil. However, traders may have grown uncomfortable with the recent upward trend on Wall Street, leading to some profit taking going into the close.
The Dow edged up 42.67 points or 0.2 percent to 18,096.27, the Nasdaq rose 7.80 points or 0.2 percent to 4,948.13 and the S&P 500 inched up 1.60 points or 0.1 percent to 2,102.40.
The major European markets all moved to the upside on Wednesday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index advanced by 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures rose on Wednesday even though Kuwait oil workers ended their three-day strike. Crude oil for May delivery surged up $1.55 or 3.8 percent to $42.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest closing level since last November.
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