After a somewhat flat start and a subsequent fall on the back of a stronger yen, the Japanese stock market has edged up a bit on Wednesday with a section of investors picking up a few front line stocks at lower levels.
Mining, oil, real estate and shipbuilding stocks are mostly trading firm, while stocks from insurance, land transport and precision instruments sectors are exhibiting weakness. Automobile, banking, chemicals and non-ferrous metals stocks are trading mixed.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which declined to around 10,277, is currently trading at 10,301, up 8.4 points or 0.08% over its previous close.
Sumitomo Osaka, Sapporo Holdings, Mizuho Trust & Banking, Nippon Sheet Glass, J Front Retailing, Japan Tobacco, Taiheiyo Cement and Mazda Motor are among the notable losers.
Credit Saison is up 2.3%. Mitsui Chemicals, Inpex, Sumitomo Chemicals, IHI Corp., Mitsubishi Paper, Hino Motors and Showa Shell are trading firm.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 82 yen level in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 82.31 to the U.S. dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan are trading marginally lower, while Malaysia and Singapore are up with modest gains. Markets across the region ended mostly lower on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks ended on a mixed note on Tuesday after a lackluster session. However, a rather disappointing report on consumer confidence and weak housing prices did not trigger any big selling as the market remained in holiday mode.
The Dow gained 20.5 points or 0.2% to close at 11,575.5 and the S&P 500 edged up by about 1 point or 0.1% to 1,258.5, while the Nasdaq declined by 4.4 points or 0.2% to 2,662.9.
Major European markets ended little changed on Tuesday. The French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index both closed nearly flat, while the U.K. market remained closed for the day.
Crude oil prices edged higher on Tuesday amid fears of a decline in supply. Light, sweet crude for February delivery settled up 47 cents at US$91.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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