The Japanese stock market significantly improved on Friday, clawing back losses posted in the previous two sessions. This upswing, occurring largely due to the global market's positive indications, saw the Nikkei 225 index rise above the 38,300 mark. Notable gains across multiple sectors were instrumental in this increase, with key contributors being heavyweight indexes and financial stocks.
The Nikkei 225 Index gained 254.93 points standing at 38,328.91 after reaching a high of 38,741.88 earlier. This gain follows a modest decrease in Japanese stocks the preceding Thursday.
Notable performers in the market were SoftBank Group and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing, securing more than 2 percent and 1 percent respectively. Among the automakers, Honda gained more than 1 percent while Toyota recorded a decline of more than 1 percent.
In the technology industry, Advantest and Tokyo Electron each gained 1 percent. Screen Holdings, however, took a hit, falling by 10 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, and Mizuho Financial from the banking sector made gains of nearly 2 percent and 1 percent respectively.
Major exporters such as Mitsubishi Electric and Canon managed to gain more than 1 percent each, while Panasonic lost nearly 5 percent and Sony dropped over 1 percent.
Notable performers included Kobe Steel and Konami Group, both reporting an almost 10 percent increase. Daikin Industries made gains nearing 9 percent, Sumco rose by nearly 8 percent, and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha increased by more than 7 percent. Similarly, Sumitomo Pharma and BANDAI NAMCO each gained approximately 7 percent.
Meanwhile, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that the average household spending in Japan decreased by 1.2 percent year-on-year in March, to 318,713 yen. This proved better than the forecasted 2.3 percent decrease following the 0.5 percent drop in February.
Further, the Ministry of Finance reported a current account surplus of 3.398 trillion yen in March, a 44 percent year-on-year increase. This figure, shy of the expected 3.489 trillion yen, is an improvement from February's surplus of 2.644 trillion yen.
Globally, Wall Street showed signs of improvement, backed by the Dow's seven-session long winning streak. The Dow surged 331.37 points, a gain of 0.9 percent to 39,387.76, recording its best closing level in over a month.
In European markets, the German DAX Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index increased by 0.3 percent.
Lastly, optimism around demand, and recent data showing bigger-than-expected drops in U.S. crude inventories resulted in crude oil prices moving higher. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for June closed higher by $0.27 at $79.26 a barrel.
