TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Friday, extending the sharp gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 adding more than 300 points to be just below the 28,900 level, following the firmly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, on higher crude oil prices and strength in technology stocks, mirroring their peers on Nasdaq.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 335.28 points or 1.17 percent to 28,886.21, after touching a high of 28,887.25 earlier. Japanese shares closed sharply higher on Thursday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.5 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.2 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are adding almost 2 percent each. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, while Mizuho Financial is flat.
Among major exporters, Panasonic and Canon are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are adding more than 1 percent each.
Among the other major gainers, Fanuc and Sumco are gaining more than 4 percent each, while Amada and Japan Steel Works are up almost 4 percent. Omron, Dowa Holdings and Ebara are adding more than 3 percent each, while Yaskawa Electric, OKUMA, Mitsubishi Materials, Toho, Unitika and Alps Alpine are rising almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Takashimaya is losing almost 5 percent and Nippon Suisan Kaisha is down almost 3 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 113 yen-range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading session on Thursday, adding to the gains posted on Wednesday. With the strong upward move, the Dow ended the session at its best closing level in over a month.
The major averages ended the session just off their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 534.75 points or 1.6 percent to 34,912.56, the Nasdaq surged 251.79 points or 1.7 percent to 14,832.43 and the S&P 500 shot up 74.46 points or 1.7 percent to 4,438.26.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index surged up by 1.3 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures settled higher Thursday as the International Energy Agency (IEA) lifted its global oil demand forecast. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November rose $0.87 or 1.1 percent at $81.31 a barrel, the highest level since October 2014.
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