TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is modestly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains of the previous two sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei index breaking above the 28,000 mark, following the positive cues from Wall Street overnight, ignoring the surge in the coronavirus's delta variant infections amid the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 173.11 points or 0.62 percent to 28,006.40, after touching a high of 28,036.23 earlier. Japanese shares closed significantly higher on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are gaining almost 1 percent each.
In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.4 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 2 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding more than 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.3 percent.
The major exporters are higher, with Sony and Mitsubishi Electric gaining almost 1 percent each, while Panasonic is edging up 0.1 percent and Canon is adding 0.4 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Sumitomo Metal Mining is gaining almost 5 percent and Fujikura is adding almost 4 percent, while JFE Holdings, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Mitsui E&S Holdings, Nippon Steel, Citizen Watch, Toho Zinc, Nippon Light Metal Holdings and Pacific Metals are all higher by more than 3 percent. Tokai Carbon, Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Tokyo Tatemono, Showa Denko K.K. and Seiko Epson are up more than 3 percent each.
Conversely, Rakuten Group is losing almost 8 percent, while Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Kyowa Kirin are down more than 2 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 110 yen-range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading day on Monday but managed to end the session modestly higher. With the uptick on the day, the major averages once again reached new record closing highs.
The major averages all finished the day in positive territory, although the Nasdaq inched up just 3.72 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 14,840.71. The Dow rose 82.76 points or 0.2 percent to 35,144.31 and the S&P 500 edged up 10.53 points or 0.2 percent to 4,422.30.
Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line and the German DAX Index fell by 0.3 percent.
Crude oil futures settled lower Monday amid worries about the outlook for energy demand due to the rapidly spreading delta variant of the coronavirus in several countries around the world. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down by $0.16 or 0.2 percent at $71.91 a barrel after four straight days of gains.
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