TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is advancing on Thursday, with the overnight gains on Wall Street and strong first-half earnings results from domestic companies boosting sentiment. Investors shrugged off weaker than expected core machine orders data.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 332.86 points or 1.45 percent to 23,246.68, off a high of 23,249.45 earlier. The Nikkei index has topped the 23,000 mark for the first time since January 1992.
The major exporters are mostly higher on a weaker yen. Panasonic is up almost 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding 0.5 percent and Canon is rising almost 4 percent, while Sony is down 0.5 percent.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are advancing almost 1 percent each.
In the oil space, Inpex is rising more than 1 percent, while Japan Petroleum Exploration is down 0.2 percent after crude oil prices fell from two-year highs overnight.
Among automakers, Toyota is edging down less than 0.1 percent, while Honda is up 0.2 percent.
Among the market's best performers, Minebea Mitsumi is rising more than 13 percent, while Shimizu Corp., Isetan Mitsukoshi and Denka Co. are higher by almost 7 percent each.
On the flip side, Toppan Printing is losing almost 5 percent, Mitsubishi Materials is declining more than 4 percent and Yokohama Rubber is down more than 2 percent.
On the economic front, the Cabinet Office said that the value of core machine orders in Japan plunged a seasonally adjusted 8.1 percent on month in September, standing at 1.027 trillion yen. That missed expectations for a decline of 2.0 percent following the 3.4 percent gain in August.
The Ministry of Finance said that Japan had a current account surplus of 2.271 trillion yen in September, missing forecasts for a surplus of 2.363 trillion yen and down from 2.380 trillion yen in August.
Meanwhile, the trade balance showed a surplus of 852.2 billion yen, beating forecasts for 832.5 billion yen and up from 318.7 billion yen in the previous month. Exports climbed 14.4 percent on year to 6.725 trillion yen, while imports advanced an annual 12.7 percent to 5.873 trillion yen.
The Bank of Japan said that overall bank lending in Japan was up 2.8 percent on year in October, coming in at 518.090 trillion yen. That was shy of forecasts for an increase of 3.0 percent following the downwardly revised 2.9 percent gain in September.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 113 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, the major averages reached new record closing highs on Wednesday in choppy trading as many traders remained on the sidelines amid another quiet day on the U.S. economic front. Developments overseas also attracted some attention as President Donald Trump has traveled to China to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Dow inched up 6.13 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 23,563.36, the Nasdaq rose 21.34 points or 0.3 percent to 6,789.12 and the S&P 500 edged up 3.74 points or 0.1 percent to 2,594.38.
The major European markets ended mixed on Wednesday. While the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent and the German DAX Index closed just above the unchanged line.
Crude oil futures fell from 2-year highs Wednesday after a surprise build in U.S. oil inventories. December WTI oil slipped $0.39 or 0.7 percent to settle at $56.81 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX