TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is rising on Tuesday following the overnight gains on Wall Street amid expectations of upbeat corporate earnings results from major companies this week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 115.98 points or 0.54 percent to 21,532.77, after touching a high of 21,637.39 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly lower on Monday.
The major exporters are higher on a weaker yen. Mitsubishi Electric is higher by almost 2 percent, while Canon and Sony are advancing almost 1 percent each. Panasonic is rising 0.3 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron is higher by more than 2 percent each.
In the auto space, Toyota Motor and Honda Motor are up 0.2 percent each. In the oil sector, Inpex and Japan Petroleum are rising 2 percent each after crude oil prices rose more than 1 percent overnight.
Market heavyweight SoftBank is gaining almost 3 percent and Fast Retailing is adding 0.2 percent.
Among the major gainers, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is gaining almost 4 percent, while Yaskawa Electric and Fuji Electric are higher by more than 3 percent each. Chiyoda Corp. is rising almost 3 percent.
On the flip side, Nomura Holdings is losing more than 2 percent and Toho Co. is lower by almost 2 percent.
In economic news, Japan is scheduled to release June figures for supermarket sales and final June figures for machine tool orders today.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the 108 yen range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed higher on Monday partly reflecting optimism about upcoming earnings news, as a slew of big-name companies are due to report their quarterly results this week. Traders were also reluctant to make significant moves amid a quiet day on the U.S. economic front, looking ahead to reports on new and existing home sales, durable goods orders, and second-quarter GDP in the coming days.
While the Nasdaq climbed 57.65 points or 0.7 percent to 8,204.14, the Dow edged up 17.70 points or 0.1 percent to 27,171.90 and the S&P 500 rose 8.42 points or 0.3 percent to 2,985.03.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on Monday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices moved higher on Monday, amid escalation in tensions in the Middle East. WTI crude for August settled up $0.59 or about 1.1 percent at $56.22 a barrel on the expiration day.
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