The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous five sessions. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving a tad above the 32,800 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street cues on Friday, with strong gains in financial and technology stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 223.60 or 0.63 percent at 35,800.71, after touching a high of 35,869.75 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.3 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.
In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 3 percent and Advantest is adding almost 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is flat.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining more than 2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are adding almost 2 percent each.
The major exporters are mixed. Canon is gaining almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.2 percent, while Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent and Sony is declining more than 1 percent.
Among other major gainers, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is surging more than 8 percent, while Daiichi Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Daiwa Securities Group are gaining almost 5 percent each. Japan Exchange Group, Nomura Holdings and Nippon Yusen K.K. are adding more than 4 percent each, while Toppan Holdings, Mitsui Mining & Smelting and Hitachi are advancing more than 3 percent each. Toyota Tsusho, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Isetan Mitsukoshi, NEC and Obayashi are up almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Shiseido is losing almost 3 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 145 yen-range on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Friday, with traders digesting earnings news from several big-name companies as well as the latest U.S. inflation data.
While the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq eventually ended the session slightly higher, the narrower Dow showed a modest move to the downside. The S&P 500 inched up 3.59 points or 0.1 percent to 4,783.83 and the Nasdaq crept up 2.57 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 14,972.76, the Dow dipped 118.04 points or 0.3 percent to 37,592.98.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices settled notably higher on Friday as an escalation in tensions in the Middle East raised concerns about delay in supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.66 or 0.9 percent at $72.68 a barrel. For the week, the contract shed about 1.1 percent.