Japanese Market Modestly Higher

Giving up the losses in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is modestly higher on Tuesday, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 39,300 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with traders reacting to domestic data that showed inflation in Japan dropping to the lowest level since March 2022.

This follows recent data showing Japan’s economy fell into a technical recession in the fourth quarter.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 87.99 points or 0.22 percent at 39,321.70, after touching fresh all-time high of 39,426.29 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent, while Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.4 percen, while Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is gaining almost 3 percent, Canon is adding more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is advancing almost 2 percent, while Sony is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Hitachi Zosen is gaining almost 6 percent, while Fukuoka Financial and Otsuka Holdings are adding more than 4 percent each. Osaka Gas and Kobe Steel are advancing almost 4 percent each, while JFE Holdings, Daiwa Securities, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Tokyo Gas and Nippon Steel are rising more than 3 percent each. Nomura Holdings, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Concordia Financial, Shizuoka Financial and IHI are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Rakuten Group is losing more than 3 percent, while Sumitomo Realty & Development and Mercari are declining almost 3 percent each.

In the…