The Japanese stock market saw a notable increase on Tuesday, building on gains from the previous session. The Nikkei 225 surpassed the 39,100 mark, influenced by diverse signals from Wall Street overnight. This upward trend was driven by gains across all sectors, particularly from prominent index constituents and technology stocks.
The Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 611.70 points, or 1.59%, to reach 39,124.72, having earlier peaked at 39,145.94. Japanese equities showed strong performance on Monday as well.
Leading the market, SoftBank Group rose by more than 3%, while Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo, increased by over 1%. In the automotive sector, both Honda and Toyota saw gains exceeding 1%.
In the technology sector, Advantest experienced a near 3% increase, Screen Holdings surged by over 7%, and Tokyo Electron rose by almost 4%.
Within the banking industry, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial edged up by 0.4%, with Mizuho Financial gaining nearly 1%, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial adding over 1%.
Major exporters mostly advanced, with Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric both gaining over 3%, Canon adding more than 1%, and Sony edging up by 0.3%.
Among other notable gainers, Disco surged 6.5%, Furukawa Electric and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha advanced almost 5% each. Fujikura rose by over 4%, while Nidec, Lasertec, and Asahi Kasei each added nearly 4%. Mitsubishi Electric and Nippon Yusen K.K. advanced over 3% each, while Sumitomo Heavy Industries and Nitto Denko each climbed almost 3%.
On the other hand, Kansai Electric Power and Sumitomo Pharma each declined by over 3%.
In the currency exchange market, the U.S. dollar was trading in the higher 149 yen range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, Monday's session ended with mixed results. Technology stocks performed well, but the broader market remained somewhat subdued as investors awaited upcoming economic releases, including private and non-farm payroll reports, JOLTs figures, and manufacturing activity data scheduled for this week.
Among key indices, the Dow fell by 128.65 points or 0.29% to 44,782.00. In contrast, both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at new record highs at 6,047.15 and 19,403.95, respectively. The S&P 500 gained 14.77 points or 0.24%, while the Nasdaq rose by 185.78 points or 0.97%.
Meanwhile, European markets moved upward. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 grew by 0.31%, Germany's DAX saw a significant rise of 1.57%, and France's CAC 40 edged up by 0.02%.
Crude oil prices increased on Monday, with potential supply disruptions amid escalating geopolitical tensions, although the rise was limited as investors looked ahead to the OPEC meeting on Thursday. January futures for West Texas Intermediate Crude oil closed up by $0.10 or 0.15% at $68.10 per barrel.
