TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is modestly higher on Tuesday, rising for a second straight day despite the absence of any cues from Wall Street, which was closed overnight for a holiday.
At a news conference in Tokyo on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump avoided remarks that could increase tensions about U.S. trade issues with Japan and instead, praised the strong bilateral ties between the two countries, boosting investor sentiment.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 62.77 points or 0.30 percent to 21,245.35, after rising to a high of 21,297.70 earlier. Japanese shares closed modestly higher on Monday.
The major exporters are higher. Mitsubishi Electric is higher by more than 1 percent, Panasonic is advancing almost 1 percent, Canon is adding 0.4 percent and Sony is up 0.3 percent.
Index heavyweight Softbank is adding 0.4 percent, while Fanuc is advancing almost 1 percent and Fast Retailing is up 0.2 percent.
Among tech stocks, Advantest is lower by 0.3 percent, while Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 3 percent. In the auto space, Honda is adding 0.5 percent and Toyota is rising 0.4 percent.
Among the major banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is higher by 0.7 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding 0.6 percent. In the oil sector, Inpex is declining 0.6 percent and Japan Petroleum is down 0.3 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Chiyoda Corp is rising more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi Motors is higher by almost 4 percent.
On the flip side, Maruha Nichiro, Hitachi Zosen and Taiheiyo Cement are all lower by more than 2 percent each.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan said that producer prices in Japan were up 0.9 percent on year in April. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 1.1 percent on year, which would have been unchanged from the March reading.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 109 yen-range on Tuesday.
Overnight, the U.S. stock markets were closed for the Memorial Day holiday.
The major European markets ended mostly higher on Monday, with investors largely reacting positively to results of EU parliamentary elections. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 moved up by 0.5 percent and 0.37 percent, respectively, while the U.K. market was closed for the Spring Bank Holiday.
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