The Japanese market has seen a significant surge after a period of losses, taking inspiration from the mostly positive trends in global markets. Currently, the Nikkei 225 is rising above the 40,100 points mark, led by heavy-hitting sectors like technology and finance.
On a specific level, the Nikkei 225 Index rose by 664.92 points or 1.69%, hitting a peak of 40,243.02. It represents a drastic change from the previous session, where Japanese stocks registered considerable drops.
High-value companies SoftBank Group and Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo, have seen gains of more than 2% and 1% respectively. Meanwhile, in the automobile industry, both Toyota and Honda shares have risen by more than 2%.
In the tech industry, shares of Advantest and Screen Holdings have grown by nearly 1%, while Tokyo Electron stocks have risen nearly 2%. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial have seen gains exceeding 1%, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial has increased by nearly 3%.
Major exporters like Canon and Sony have also seen rises of almost 1%, whereas Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric shares have grown by more than that figure. One of the standout performers is Socionext, whose shares skyrocketed by nearly 13%.
However, on the Wall Street, stocks had a mixed day with the Dow falling by 0.1%, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.1%, and the Nasdaq increased by 0.2%. In contrasts, the main European markets saw an upward trend. The German DAX Index rose by 0.5%, the French CAC 40 Index increased by 0.3%, and the FTSE 100 Index in the UK slightly went up.
In the commodities market, crude oil prices have also seen growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May rose by $0.28 or 0.33% to finish at $85.43 a barrel, after OPEC finished its meeting without altering its production policy.
