The Japanese stock market is recovering some of its recent losses, as it modestly rises following mixed signals from Wall Street. The Nikkei 225 Index is now above the 38,300 point mark, primarily driven by gains in exporter and financial stocks.
More specifically, the Nikkei 225 Index has risen by 115.14 points or 0.30 percent to 38,317.51, with its highest point reaching 38,371.44 earlier. This comes after a significant drop in Japanese stocks on Wednesday.
In the market drama, heavyweights such as SoftBank Group has lost nearly 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing has slipped 0.5 percent. Among car manufacturers, Toyota has gone down 0.4 percent, but Honda has seen an increase of 0.4 percent.
The technology sector appears stable, with Advantest holding steady while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings suffer losses of more than 1 percent each.
In contrast, the banking sector sees gains with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial up by almost 1 percent each. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial has added more than 1 percent.
Major exporters, such as Canon and Sony, are gaining momentum with the former up by more than 1 percent, and the latter by 0.3 percent. Panasonic sees an even greater increase of more than 2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric suffers a small decline of 0.4 percent.
Other gainers include Omron, soaring with an almost 12 percent increase, Yamaha, rising by more than 10 percent, and Orix with a surge of over 8 percent. AGC and Shiseido are up by almost 4 percent each, while T&D Holdings and Konica Minolta are advancing more than 3 percent each.
In contrast, Yamato Holdings is experiencing a substantial tumble of almost 11 percent, Taiyo Yuden is dropping by more than 7 percent, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries by almost 6 percent.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar is trading at a higher rate in the 157 yen-range.
On Wall Street, stocks have shown a lack of clear direction, as it struggles to find momentum. However, the Dow Jones managed to close higher for the sixth consecutive day, hitting its highest level in over a month.
All major European markets have seen positive movement, with the French CAC 40 Index, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index, and the German DAX Index advancing by 0.7 percent, 0.5 percent, and 0.4 percent respectively.
Finally, oil prices have seen an increase after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicated a rise in crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.61 or 0.78 percent at $78.99 per barrel.