TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is modestly higher on Tuesday in choppy trade in the absence of any cues from Wall Street which was closed on Monday for a holiday. Nevertheless, optimism about U.S.-China trade talks boosted investor sentiment.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 31.18 points or 0.15 percent to 21,313.03, after rising to a high of 21,323.45 earlier. Japanese shares hit a two-month high on Monday.
The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 1 percent and Panasonic is down almost 1 percent, while Sony is adding 0.6 percent and Canon is edging up 0.1 percent.
In the tech sector, Advantest is down 0.2 percent and Tokyo Electron is lower by 0.4 percent.
Among the major automakers, Toyota is up 0.2 percent, while Honda is down 0.3 percent. In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down 0.4 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing 0.6 percent.
In the oil space, Inpex is adding more than 1 percent and Japan Petroleum is rising 0.6 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Showa Shell Sekiyu is rising more than 3 percent and Tokyu Corp. is higher by almost 3 percent. Chubu Electric Power and Dentsu are advancing more than 2 percent each.
On the flip side, Furukawa Electric is losing almost 2 percent, while Softbank Group, Hitachi Zosen and Toray Industries are lower by more than 1 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 110 yen-range on Tuesday.
The U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the President's Day holiday.
The major European markets closed mixed on Monday, amid continued optimism about U.S.-China trade talks. France's CAC 40 gained 0.3 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended lower by about 0.24 percent and Germany's DAX ended 0.01 percent down.
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