FX.co ★ Japanese Market Slightly Higher

The Japanese stock market opened the week with modest gains, adding to the positive momentum from the previous session. Engaging in early trading, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 remained firmly above the 38,200 point mark. This positive trend followed mixed signals from Wall Street at the close of last week, as investment in index heavyweights and financial stocks increased.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Index reported a minor increase of 14.48 points or 0.04 percent, settling at 38,243.59 points after reaching a peak of 38,273.40 and a low of 37,969.58. The Japanese stock market finished last Friday's session with conservative gains.

In terms of specific sectors, market heavyweight SoftBank Group saw nearly a 3 percent increase, whereas Fast Retailing, the operator behind Uniqlo, dipped slightly by 0.2 percent. In the automotive industry, Honda shares rose by 2.5 percent while Toyota fell by approximately 1 percent.

In the tech sector, Screen Holdings and Advantest respectively witnessed 0.5 percent and 1 percent gains, while Tokyo Electron’s value remained unaffected. Major banking institutions including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial saw over 1 percent growth, whereas Mizuho Financial saw a minor 0.4 percent increase.

Major exporters followed a mixed trend – while Sony and Panasonic shares saw more than a 2 percent and 1 percent increases respectively, Canon was edged down by 0.3 percent and Mitsubishi Electric saw approximately a 1 percent decline.

In the group of major gainers, Minebea Mitsumi, Olympus, Shizuoka Financial, NH Foods, and KDDI saw significant increases, while Shiseido, Murata Manufacturing, and Toto also saw nearly 3 percent growth each.

On the opposite end, Comsys Holdings, Secom, Mitsui Fudosan, and Kubota reported substantial losses, joined by Mitsubishi Estate, OKUMA, and Mazda Motor with nearly 5 percent losses, and Daiwa House Industry, Hitachi Zosen, Dowa Holdings, and Haseko with close to 4 percent decreases.

From an economic perspective, Japan's M2 money stock increased by 2.2 percent YOY in April, as reported by the Bank of Japan. However, this fell short of a projected 2.5 percent increase – a rate that would have matched the growth seen in March. The M3 money stock increased 1.6 percent annually, slowing down from 1.8 percent of the previous month.

The currency market witnessed the U.S dollar trading in the upper 155 yen-range on Monday. Wall Street reported a mixed picture last Friday, with an initial rise in stocks slowing down throughout the trading session yielding a mixed final picture.

Impressively, the Dow Jones managed to close higher for the eighth consecutive session. Although Nasdaq saw a small drop, S&P 500 and the Dow Jones experienced increases.

In Europe, main stock markets also reported gains, with the UK's FTSE 100 Index, the German DAX Index, and the French CAC 40 Index increasing by 0.6 percent, 0.5 percent, and 0.4 percent respectively.