TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is rising on Friday as investors shrugged off the negative cues overnight from Wall Street and as a weaker yen lifted shares of exporters.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 77.20 points or 0.34 percent to 22,915.57, off a high of 22,954.19 earlier.
The major exporters are advancing on a weaker yen. Sony, Canon, Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are higher in a range of 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent.
Automaker Toyota is rising 0.4 percent and Honda is advancing more than 1 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining 0.6 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down by less than 0.1 percent.
Among oil stocks, Inpex is higher by more than 2 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration is gaining more than 3 percent after crude oil prices rose overnight before paring gains to end flat.
In the tech space, Advantest is declining 1 percent, while Kyocera is adding 0.4 percent and Alps Electric is up 0.2 percent.
Among the market's best performers, Chiyoda Corp., Eisai Co., Suzuki Motor and Mitsui Mining & Smelting are all higher by more than 3 percent each.
On the flip side, Takara Holdings is declining more than 4 percent, while Kajima Corp. and Screen Holdings are down more than 2 percent each.
In economic news, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that overall nationwide consumer prices in Japan were up just 0.6 percent on year in April. That was shy of expectations for a gain of 0.7 percent and was down sharply from 1.1 percent in March.
Core CPI was up 0.7 percent on year, beneath forecasts for 0.8 percent and down from 0.9 percent in the previous month.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 110 yen-range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed modestly lower on Thursday in choppy trading as traders expressed some uncertainty about the second round of trade talks between the U.S. and China.
The Dow dipped 54.95 points or 0.2 percent to 24,713.98, the Nasdaq slipped 15.82 points or 0.2 percent to 7,382.47 and the S&P 500 edged down 2.33 points or 0.1 percent to 2,720.13.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on Thursday. While the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.9 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures pared initial gains to end flat on Thursday. WTI crude for June delivery ended the day unchanged at $71.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX