Japan's Nikkei hits near 8-week high on tech boost
Japan's Nikkei share average hit a near eight-week high on Tuesday, as investors scooped up chips and other technology stocks, with overnight Wall Street gains aiding sentiment.
The Nikkei .N225 had risen 1.28% to 27,879.70 by the midday break, after jumping to as high as 27,943.27, its highest since 15 Sept.
The broader Topix .TOPX climbed 1.08% to 1,954.96.
"The market was highly influenced by the performance of US equities overnight," said Yugo Tsuboi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
"Particularly growth shares were strong. This is because foreign investors, who oversold Japanese shares, bought back those shares. This could be a sigh that they saw a momentum coming back in the Japanese market."
Chip related Tokyo Electron 8035.T and Advantest 6857.T 3.3% and 2.32%, respectively.
Technology investor SoftBank Group jumped 9984.T 4.85% to become the biggest boost for the Nikkei. Phone company KDDI 9433.T gained 1.03%.
Audio equipment and game maker Sony Group 6758.T jumped 3.83%.
All but two of the 33 industry sub-indexes on the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose, with the insurance sector .IINSU.T leading the gains.
Railways .IRAIL.T fell 0.02%, with Central Japan Railway 9022.T losing 0.44% and Kintetsu Group Holdings 9041.T falling 0.92%.
Financial services firm Orix 8591.T fell 2.91%, after posting a 17% drop in its quarterly net profit.
Toshiba 6502.T fell 1.72%, after a report said private equity fund Japan Industrial Partners submitted a bid to buy the conglomerate for $15 billion that lacks key commitments from banks.
