TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is advancing on Tuesday following the strong gains overnight on Wall Street and on upbeat data from China that showed the country's manufacturing sector moved back into expansion in March.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 216.06 points or 1.13 percent to 19,301.03, after touching a high of 19,336.19 earlier. Japanese stocks closed notably lower on Monday.
Meanwhile, market heavyweight SoftBank is advancing almost 4 percent and Fast Retailing is higher by more than 2 percent.
The major exporters are mixed despite a weaker yen. Sony is advancing more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 1 percent, while Canon is declining almost 2 percent and Panasonic is down 0.4 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are rising more than 2 percent each.
In the oil sector, Inpex is higher by more than 1 percent and Japan Petroleum is edging up 0.1 percent even as crude oil prices plunged to a more than 18-year low overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Fujifilm Holdings is gaining almost 6 percent, while Pacific Metals, Taiyo Yuden, Olympus Corp and Hitachi are rising more than 3 percent each.
On the flip side, Nippon Steel is losing more than 4 percent, while Yokohama Rubber and Sompo Holdings are lower by almost 4 percent each.
On the economic front, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that retail sales in Japan gained a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent on month in February. That beat forecasts for a decline of 1.7 percent, following the 1.5 percent increase in January.
Japan will also see February figures for unemployment, industrial production, housing starts and construction orders today.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 108 yen-range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed sharply higher on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump extended national social distancing guidelines until at least April 30. Trump had previously hoped to reopen the country by Easter Sunday, on April 12, but said he decided to extend the guidelines in an effort to keep the death toll from the coronavirus below 100,000. The announcement by Trump came as data from Johns Hopkins University shows more than 153,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. and more than 2,800 deaths.
The Dow surged up 690.70 points or 3.2 percent to 22,327.48, the Nasdaq soared 271.77 points or 3.6 percent to 7,774.15 and the S&P 500 jumped 85.18 points or 3.4 percent to 2,626.65.
The major European markets also moved higher over on Monday. While the German DAX Index surged up by 1.9 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.6 percent.
Crude oil prices plunged sharply on Monday, pushing the front month contracts to their lowest close in more than 18 years. WTI crude for May ended down $1.42, or about 6.6 percent, at $20.09 a barrel, the lowest settlement since February 2002.
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