TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese market is trading sharply higher on Thursday, expending the strong gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 39,900 level, with gains across all sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 696.96 points or 1.69 percent to 41,868.28, after touching a high of 41,890.82 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is adding almost 1 percent and Honda is also gaining almost 1 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.2 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 3 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is advancing more than 3 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding more than 2 percent.
Among the major exporters, Sony is advancing almost 3 percent, Canon is adding almost 2 percent, Panasonic is edging up 0.1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 1 percent.
Among other major gainers, Resona Holdings and Furukawa Electric are surging more than 5 percent each, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Japan Steel Works are gaining more than 4 percent each. Hoya and Bridgestone are adding almost 4 percent each, while Mazda Motor, Terumo, Fuji Electric and Ryohin Keikaku are up more than 3 percent each. Nissan Motor, Concordia Financial and Fujikura are advancing almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, there are no other major losers.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 146 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday, with the major averages all moving to the upside after ending Tuesday's session narrowly mixed. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.
The major averages ended the day just off their highs of the session. The Dow jumped 507.85 points or 1.1 percent to 45,010.20, the Nasdaq climbed 127.33 points or 0.6 percent to 21,020.02 and the S&P 500 advanced 49.29 points or 0.8 percent to 6,358.91.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index surged by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent.
Crude oil prices dipped slightly on Wednesday as uncertainty persists in U.S. trade talks ahead of the deadline. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery eased $0.06 to $65.25 per barrel.
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