Japanese Market Extending Gains TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Japanese stock market is higher on Monday, extending gains of the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 breaking above the 30,000 level to three-week highs. The cues from Wall Street on Thursday were broadly positive on upbeat jobs and manufacturing data. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 245.98 points or 0.82 percent to 30,099.98, after touching a high of 30,195.00 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday. Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is up more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent, while Toyota is flat. The major exporters are also higher. Panasonic is edging down 0.4 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.1 percent. Sony and Canon are edging up 0.4 percent each.