The Japanese stock market experienced a significant rise on Monday, building on the gains from the previous session. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index climbed 394.10 points or 1.02 percent to 38,882.00, peaking at 39,032.50 earlier in the day. This comes on the heels of mixed signals from Wall Street on Friday, with gains driven by heavyweights in the technology and financial sectors.
Leading the charge, SoftBank Group inched up by 0.2 percent, while Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo, saw an increase of nearly 2 percent. In the automotive sector, Honda rose by more than 1 percent, although Toyota dipped slightly, down 0.1 percent.
Within the technology sector, Screen Holdings gained almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron added over 1 percent, while Advantest saw a modest uptick of 0.1 percent.
The banking sector also saw gains, with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rising more than 1 percent, and both Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial advancing over 2 percent each.
Major exporters performed well, with Canon and Sony each gaining nearly 2 percent. Mitsubishi Electric saw an increase of over 1 percent, and Panasonic was up almost 1 percent.
Among the notable gainers, Mercari surged by more than 12 percent. Nissan Chemical and Sumitomo Pharma each soared by roughly 8 percent, while Sharp and Yaskawa Electric both posted gains of over 5 percent. Taisei added almost 5 percent, and Omron, Taiyo Yuden, M3, Suzuki Motor, and JTEKT all advanced by around 4 percent each. Ricoh, TDK, and Kyocera rose more than 3 percent, while Tokio Marine climbed nearly 3 percent.
Conversely, Socionext fell over 5 percent, and Fujikura dropped more than 3 percent, with Furukawa Electric and Disco both declining by almost 3 percent each.
On the economic front, Japan's manufacturing sector returned to expansion territory in May. According to the latest survey from Jibun Bank, the manufacturing PMI score reached 50.4, up from 49.6 in April, crossing the critical 50-point threshold that separates expansion from contraction.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar was trading in the lower 157 yen range on Monday.
On Wall Street, major stock indexes rallied as the trading session came to a close on Friday, following a mixed performance earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by 574.84 points or 1.5 percent to 38,686.32, the S&P 500 advanced by 42.03 points or 0.8 percent to 5,277.51, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slightly dropped by 2.06 points, or less than a tenth of a percent, to 16,735.02, despite having plunged by as much as 1.7 percent earlier.
Across Europe, major markets also moved upward, with the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rising by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index increasing by 0.2 percent, and the German DAX Index closing just above the unchanged mark.
In commodity markets, crude oil prices fell for the third consecutive day due to demand concerns, although optimism over the extension of OPEC production cuts helped limit losses. West Texas Intermediate crude for July slipped by $0.92 to settle at $76.99 a barrel.
