FX.co ★ Japanese Market Notably Higher

The Japanese stock market has seen significant gains today, marking a considerable recovery from the heavy losses endured during the previous session. These positive movements occur despite the broad negativity emanating from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 benchmark, a key indicator of Japanese market performance, has been notably active above the 37,700 level, suggesting that traders remain cautious ahead of the Bank of Japan's pending monetary policy decision. Some investors sees opportunity in the market's recent downturn and they have capitalized on the chance to buy stocks at reduced rates.

The Nikkei 225 Index is up 158.63 points or 0.42 percent to 37,787.11, briefly reaching a high of 37,796.06 earlier. The Japanese market had a particularly dismal session on Thursday, closing significantly lower than the previous day's trades.

Market giant SoftBank Group's stock saw an increase of nearly 2 percent, while Uniqlo's operating company, Fast Retailing, remained steady. Key automakers experienced mixed fortunes; Honda's stock declined almost 1 percent while Toyota's increased by 0.2 percent.

Within the technology sector, stock for Advantest and Tokyo Electron both grew by nearly 1 percent, and Screen Holdings saw a modest decline of 0.1 percent.

Banking sectors saw slight movements, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial increasing by 0.5 percent and Mizuho Financial up by almost 1 percent. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial experienced a small decline of 0.1 percent.

Prominent exporters Mitsubishi Electric and Sony saw their stocks edge down between 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Panasonic's stock declined over 1 percent. On a brighter note, Canon saw a stock increase of over 3 percent.

Among the big winners of the day were Keyence, surging over 6 percent, T&D Holdings increasing by almost 5 percent, and companies like Daiichi Sankyo, Socionext, and CyberAgent, all gaining over 4 percent. Canon also enjoyed an increase of over 3 percent, while companies like Dai-ichi Life, Daikin Industries, Nidec, and Sumco advanced by nearly 3 percent each.

In contrast, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Fujitsu, and M3 experienced losses of approximately 6 percent, over 4 percent, and almost 3 percent, respectively.

On the economic front, Tokyo region consumer prices rose by 1.8 percent year on year this April, failing to meet estimates of a 2.6 percent increase, as provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. These figures indicate a slowdown from March's figures. The Core CPI, which excludes food prices due to their volatility, also saw a rose of 1.6 percent, falling short of the expected 2.2 percent increase.

The Bank of Japan will conclude its monetary policy meeting today and announce its interest rate decision. It is widely anticipated that the BoJ will maintain its benchmark lending rate at 0.1 percent.

The American dollar is currently trading at an increased rate in the higher 155 yen-range.

Yesterday, Wall Street saw an initial decline, followed by a partial recovery later in the day. However, all of the main American market indexes finished the day negatively.

Europe's major markets saw mixed results, with the UK's FTSE 100 Index up by 0.5 percent, while France's CAC 40 was down by 0.9 percent, and Germany's DAX slipped by 1.0 percent.

Despite disappointing data pointing to slower than expected US GDP growth for the first quarter, crude oil prices settled higher yesterday. The futures for West Texas Intermediate Crude oil for June ended the day up by $0.76, or 0.92%, at $83.57 a barrel.