TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese market is sharply higher on Thursday, snapping a five-session losing streak, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up almost 2 percent to above the 50,900 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 710.98 points or 1.42 percent to 50,923.25, after touching a high of 51,248.28 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 2 percent and Honda is edging up 0.5 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is advancing almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings is losing almost 2 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down more than 2 percent.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 2 percent Sony is adding 1.5 percent, while Panasonic and Canon are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.
Among other major gainers, Konica Minolta is skyrocketing almost 15 percent, Fujikura is surging almost 7 percent and Nintendo is surging almost 5 percent, while Hitachi, Disco and Kawasaki Heavy Industries is adding more than 4 percent each. Fuji Electric and Sumitomo Electric Industries are gaining almost 4 percent each, while Taiyo Yuden, Obayashi and Lasertec are advancing more than 3 percent each. Hoya, Japan Exchange Group and Toyota Tsusho are up almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Nippon Steel is losing almost 5 percent, while Socionext is declining almost 4 percent and IHI is slipping almost 3 percent.
In economic news, the services sector in Japan continued to expand in October, albeit at a slightly slower pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Thursday with a services PMI score of 53.1. That's down from 53.3, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 153 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks turned in a strong performance throughout much of the trading day on Wednesday before once again coming under pressure late in the session following the sell-off seen in the previous session.
The major averages showed a notable pullback in the final hour of trading but managed to end the day in positive territory. The Nasdaq advanced 151.16 points or 0.7 percent to 23,499.80, the Dow climbed 225.76 points or 0.5 percent to 47,311.00 and the S&P 500 rose 24.74 points or 0.4 percent to 6,796.29.
The major European markets all also moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday as concerns about excess supply and lower demand compelled investors to refrain from big moves. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.92 or 1.52 percent at $59.64 per barrel.
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