Japan Markets Surge; Nikkei Rises Over 150 Points

Japanese stocks were trading higher on Monday. The Nikkei 225 gained 0.83 percent, or 157.8 points to 19,154.00, and the TOPIX rose 0.21 percent, or 3.2 points to 1,528.57.

iShares MSCI Japan ETF EWJ shares rose 0.29 percent to close at $51.25, while iShares MSCI Pacific ex-Japan Idx (ETF) EPP fell 0.10 percent to close at $41.77 on Friay.

The U.S. dollar rose 0.1 percent to trade at 115.43 against the Japanese yen.

West Texas Intermediate for January delivery rose 4.70 percent to trade at $53.92 per barrel on the NYMEX, while Brent for February settlement rose 4.14 percent to $56.58 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange.

U.S. markets closed higher on Thursday, with the Dow gaining 0.72 percent to 19,756.85, and the NASDAQ gaining 0.50 percent to 5,444.50.

Top market movers among the Japanese market are as follows:

• Shares of Nikken Kogaku Co Ltd (9767) climbed around 25 percent to 200.0 JPY.
• Japan Communications Inc (9424) shares rose around 25 percent to 196.0 JPY.
• Akatsuki Shoji Co Ltd (3932) shares increased over 23 percent to 2,702.0 JPY.

• Kubotek Corp (7709) declined over 17 percent to 724.0 JPY.
• Dijet Industrial Co Ltd (6138) shares dropped around 11 percent to 189.0 JPY.
• Kuroda Precision Industries Ltd (7726) shares fell 9 percent to 465.0 JPY.