(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is advancing on Thursday following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street on upbeat corporate earnings results from major companies, while a weaker yen boosted exporters' shares.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 115.77 points or 0.51 percent to 22,741.15, after rising to a high of 22,771.52 earlier.
The major exporters are mostly higher on a weaker yen. Panasonic is advancing more than 1 percent, Canon is rising 0.7 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is adding 0.4 percent, while Sony is down 0.6 percent.
In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 1 percent, while Advantest is declining 0.7 percent.
The Nikkei business daily reported that tech giant Apple will be among a group of backers expected to provide as much as 40 billion yen in support for troubled screen maker Japan Display or JDI. Shares of Japan Display are gaining more than 10 percent.
Among auto stocks, Honda Motor is adding more than 1 percent and Toyota Motor is up 0.5 percent.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent, while Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent.
Nidec reported a 41 percent decrease in second-quarter profit from last year and also cut its profit outlook for the full year. The precision motor maker's shares are down 0.5 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Yamato Holdings is rising more than 4 percent, Hino Motors is advancing almost 4 percent and Mitsui E&S Holdings is higher by more than 3 percent.
On the flip side, Toray Industries is losing more than 3 percent.
In economic news, Japan will see final August numbers for its leading and coincident indexes, preliminary October figures for the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei, and the services and composite indexes from Jibun today.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 108 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed modestly higher on Wednesday in choppy trading as traders digested the latest batch of earnings news from big-name companies like Boeing and Caterpillar. Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data keeping some traders on the sidelines.
The Dow edged up 45.85 points or 0.2 percent to 26,833.95, the Nasdaq rose 15.50 points or 0.2 percent to 8,119.79 and the S&P 500 climbed 8.53 points or 0.3 percent to 3,004.52.
The major European markets finished mixed on Wednesday. While the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index rose by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.7 percent.
Crude oil futures rose sharply and settled at a one-month high on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected decline in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $1.49 or 2.7 percent at $55.97 a barrel.
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