TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is higher on Thursday, extending gains of the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 staying above the 29,000 level, following positive cues overnight from Wall Street. The broader market is being lifted by the rally in utilities and materials shares. Value-oriented stocks are again dominating as investors refocus on a stimulus-driven global economic recovery and a vaccine.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 132.72 points or 0.46 percent to 29,169.28, after touching a low of 28,995.33 in early trades. Japanese shares ended a volatile session on a flat note on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is advancing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is rising nearly 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is declining almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is lower by almost 2 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.5 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is up 0.6 percent.
The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is rising more than 2 percent, Canon is edging up 0.1 percent, while Panasonic is declining almost 2 percent and Sony is down more than 1 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is rising more than 8 percent, Mitsui OSK Lines is up almost 7 percent, Nippon Yusen is adding more than 6 percent and Toyobo is gaining more than 4 percent. Shimizu, Oji Holdings and Shinsei Bank are all up almost 4 percent each.
Conversely, Izuzu motors is losing more than 4 percent, while Alps Alpine and Bridgestone are down almost 3 percent each. Sumco and Central Japan railway are down more than 2 percent each.
In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 0.4 percent on month in February, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 0.5 percent and was unchanged from the January reading. On a yearly basis, producer prices sank 0.7 percent - in line with expectations and following the 1.6 percent decline in the previous month.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-108 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher early in the session on Wednesday amid a rally by tech stocks ending Tuesday's trading modestly higher. The Dow showed a substantial move to the upside during trading on Wednesday. The blue chip index jumped to a new record closing high, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged slightly lower after yesterday's spike.
The Dow surged up 464.28 points or 1.5 percent to 32,297.02 and the S&P 500 climbed 23.37 points or 0.6 percent to 3,898.81. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq slipped 4.99 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 13,068.83.
The major European markets moved mostly higher on Wednesday. The French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.1 percent and the German DAX Index advanced by 0.7 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and closed marginally lower.
Crude oil futures ended higher on Wednesday, rebounding from recent losses, despite a rise in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended up $0.43 or 0.7 percent at $64.44 a barrel.
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