CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese market is trading significantly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 39,300 level, with gains in index heavyweights and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in automakers.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 338.60 points or 0.87 percent to 39,280.67, after touching a high of 39,348.78 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 1 percent and Honda is declining almost 2 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 4 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing almost 3 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.4 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is declining almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.1 percent.
Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining almost 1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent and Panasonic is slipping more than 1 percent.
Among other major gainers, Ebara is soaring almost 8 percent, Alps Alpine is gaining more than 4 percent, Yaskawa Electric is adding almost 4 percent and Taiyo Yuden is up more than 3 percent, while Furukawa Electric and Resonac Holdings are advancing almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Renesas Electronics is tumbling almost 7 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 144 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks initially extended the rally seen to start the week early in the session on Wednesday before giving back ground over the course of the trading day. The major averages pulled back off their early highs, eventually ending the day narrowly mixed.
While the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 61.02 points or 0.3 percent to a new four-month closing high of 19,973.55, the S&P 500 edge down 0.02 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,092.16 and the Dow slipped 106.59 points or 0.3 percent to 42,982.43.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent.
Crude oil prices moved higher on Wednesday as an EIA report indicated a draw in crude oil inventories and a surge in U.S. gasoline demand to a three-and-a-half-year high. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for August delivery closed up by $0.55 to settle at $64.92 per barrel.
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