The Nikkei average extended its gains in the morning session on the Tokyo stock market, rising 1.77 percent from the previous trading day to 68,943.76. Buoyed by the previous day's rally in US tech stocks, semiconductor-related shares with high index contributions led the advance, pushing the Nikkei up as much as 2.41 percent to 69,374.86 and reclaiming the psychologically important 69,000 level. Steady performance in South Korea's Kospi index and remarks by Finance Minister and Financial Services Minister Satsuki Katayama encouraging increased domestic asset investment by pension funds, including the Government Pension Investment Fund, also supported investor sentiment. Among individual stocks, SUMCO surged over 15 percent, SoftBank Group jumped over 11 percent, and Fujikura soared over 8 percent, while Advantest and Tokyo Electron rose over 3 percent. On the other hand, Seven & i Holdings, which reported earnings the previous day, fell over 1 percent, and Fast Retailing dropped over 3 percent as sell-on-the-news selling took hold. Trading value on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market reached 5.284226 trillion yen, with 950 advancing issues and 564 declining issues.
Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd.
Fujikura Ltd
FAST RETAILING CO., LTD.
SoftBank Group Corp.
