Japanese Market Rises

TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market rose on Tuesday, with the positive lead overnight from Wall Street, higher oil prices and a weaker yen lifting investor sentiment.

In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 134.84 0.82 16601.24, off a high of 16649.66 earlier.

Among the major exporters, Sony is losing more than 1 percent and Canon is declining 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, Toshiba is adding 0.4 percent, Panasonic is rising 0.6 percent and market heavyweight Fast Retailing is advancing 1 percent. Sharp is unchanged.

Among the major automakers, Toyota is adding almost 1 percent, while Honda is down 0.5 percent. Shares of Apple's suppliers Alps Electric and Taiyo Yuden are up 0.8 percent and almost 3 percent respectively after Apple's shares rose overnight.

In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is advancing almost 2 percent after it said it plans to buy back its own shares. In the oil sector, Inpex is rising up more than 3 percent, while JX Holdings is down 0.8 percent.

On the economic front, Japan will see final March data for industrial production today.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the 109 yen-level on Tuesday, up from Monday's close in the upper 108 yen level in Tokyo.

On Wall Street, stocks closed sharply higher on Monday amid a sharp increase in the price of oil, which extended the upward move seen last week.

The Dow surged up 175.39 points or 1 percent to 17,710.71, the Nasdaq soared 57.78 points or 1.2 percent to 4,775.46 and the S&P 500 jumped 20.05 points or 1 percent to 2,066.66.

The major European markets turned in a mixed performance on Monday, with the German market closed for a holiday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.2 percent.

The price of crude oil reached its highest closing level in over six months on Monday, as supply disruptions in Nigeria led Goldman Sachs to raise its price forecast. WTI oil for June delivery jumped $1.51 or 3.3 percent to $47.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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