Japanese stock market is higher on Monday, extending gains of the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 above the 29,400 level, following broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. Investors continue to seek bargains after a sharp drop early last week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 301.15 points or 1.03 percent to 29,477.85, after touching a high of 29,510.66 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is down more than 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is adding almost 2 percent.
The major exporters are also higher. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are up more than 1 percent, while Sony is gaining almost 2 percent and Canon is adding nearly 3 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is adding almost 4 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.4 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 2 percent, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.3 percent.
Shares in Nomura Holdings are plummeting almost 14 percent after the Japanese brokerage said it may take a huge loss of about $2 billion from a transaction executed by its U.S. subsidiary with a U.S. client. The company also said it will cancel the planned issuance of U.S. dollar senior notes.
Among the other major gainers, CyberAgent is gaining almost 5 percent, while Rakuten and Screen holdings are adding almost 4 percent each. Aeon and Nitto Denko are up almost 3 percent each, while Sumitomo Metal Mining, Subaru, Sumco and Kao Corp. are higher by more than 2 percent each.
Conversely, Hitachi Zosen, Mitsui OSK Lines and Nippon Light metal are losing more than 3 percent each, while Daiwa Securities, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are down almost 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 109 yen-range on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Friday, extending the upward move seen over the course of the previous session. With the continued advance, the Dow and the S&P 500 ended the session at new record closing highs.
The major averages accelerated to the upside going into the close. The Dow surged up 453.40 points or 1.4 percent to 33,072.88, the Nasdaq jumped 161.05 points or 1.2 percent to 13,138.73 and the S&P 500 spiked 65.02 points or 1.7 percent to 3,974.54.
The major European also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.8 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.6 percent.
Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday on concerns it might take several weeks to dislodge the giant container ship stuck in the Suez Canal. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended up $2.41 or 4.1 percent at $60.97 a barrel.
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