The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous six sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from European markets and lack of cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 72,400 mark to fresh all-time highs, with gains in index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in automaker stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 1,155.71 points or 1.62 percent at 72,405.77, after touching an all-time high of 72,584.15 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Friday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.4 percent and Toyota is also edging down 0.4 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent, Screen Holdings is adding more than 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 1 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are adding almost 1 percent each.
The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 3 percent and Sony is adding more than 1 percent, while Panasonic and Canon are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Among the other major gainers, J. Front Retailing is soaring more than 15 percent, while Yaskawa Electric and Toto are jumping more than 9 percent each. Fanuc and Minebea Mitsumi are surging more than 8 percent each, while Toppan Holdings is rising almost 8 percent. Furukawa Electric and Mitsui Kinzoku are advancing almost 7 percent each. Murata Manufacturing and Resonac Holdings are gaining more than 5 percent each, while Tokuyama and Ibiden are adding almost 5 percent each. TDK and Renesas Electronics are up more than 4 percent each. Ebara is gaining almost 4 percent.
Conversely, JGC Holdings and Taiyo Yuden are declining more than 3 percent each, while Keio and Tokyo Electric Power are losing almost 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 161 yen-range on Monday.
On Wall Street, the markets were closed on Friday for Juneteenth Day holiday.
The major European markets ended the day in the negative. The UK's FTSE 100 ended down 0.35 percent, Germany's DAX drifted down 0.16 percent and France's CAC 40 lost 0.55 percent.
Crude oil prices tumbled last week on reports that the Strait of Hormuz was re-opened, falling more than 10 percent from the previous week's close to below $80. But Iran closed the strait again over the weekend, likely prompting a rebound in crude prices this week.
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Market Analysis
June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.