Japanese shares rebound from biggest fall in a year after Nasdaq gain

TOKYO: Japanese shares rebounded on Monday from the biggest day's fall in almost a year in the previous session, led by chip and electronics shares, as a pause in the rise in the US bond yields boosted the tech-heavy Nasdaq index.

The Nikkei share average added 2.31% to 29,635.31 by 0158 GMT, while the broader Topix jumped 1.63% to 1,894.94.

"The Nikkei will reclaim the 30,000 level sooner or later depending on how the US bond yields will perform," said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.

"In the first place, the yields rose on expectations for an economic rebound, which is not a bad news for the stock market."

Yields on US 10-year notes came off to 1.40%, from last week's peak of 1.61%.

The fall in the yields boosted the Nasdaq index by 0.56% on Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%, and the S&P 500 edged down 0.48.

Chip related shares jumped in Japan, with Tokyo Electron rising 3.28%, Advantest adding 4.8% and Screen Holdings jumping 4.7%.

Index heavy weight SoftBank Group, up 5.31%, was the biggest contributor to the Nikkei's gain, followed by Uniqlo clothing store operator Fast Retailing, which jumped 2.43%.

Itochu jumped 2.59% after Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a holding of a 5.1% stake in the trading house as of Dec. 31.

The largest percentage gainers in the Nikkei index were NTT Data Corp, rising 5.97%, followed by Trend Micro gaining 5.47 % and SoftBank Group.

The largest percentage losses in the index were Sharp , losing 3.38 %, followed by Mitsui OSK Lines with a 2.08% decline and J.Front Retailing falling 1.57 %.

There were 173 advancers on the Nikkei index against 46 decliners .