Japanese shares track Wall St higher; SoftBank, chip shares gain

TOKYO: Japanese shares rose on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street's strong finish overnight, as heavyweights SoftBank Group and chip-related stocks jumped along with energy and transport sectors.

The Nikkei share average advanced to 1.13% 27,803.83 by 0202 GMT, while the broader Topix gained 1.1% to 1,936.17.

Wall Street's main indexes ended higher on Monday, with the Nasdaq closing at an all-time high, as sentiment was boosted after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE.

"Japan's market rose as expectations for a faster economic recovery (globally) were raised after the US approval of the Pfizer's vaccine," said Shuji Hosoi, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.

"Whether the Japanese shares will continue this momentum will depend on how Japan can come up with measures for stopping a further surge of new infections."

Japan's vaccination rate still lags other developed nations and the country's hospitals are battling its worse wave of the outbreak, and, amid this pandemic, Tokyo is hosting the Paralympic Games.

Global start-up investor SoftBank Group rose 2.14%, while chip-related shares rose after a strong finish of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Chip manufacturing equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose 2.34% and semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest gained 2.47%.

Shippers also led the market's gain, up 4.2%, while steel makers and airlines gained 3.2% and 2.61%, respectively.

Industrial materials maker Showa Denko became the worst performer on the Nikkei, tumbling 11.65%, after the company announced a sale of new shares.

Yamaha Motor followed with a loss of 6.98% and Olympus was down 1.69 %. The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board was 0.41 billion, compared to the average of 1.04 billion in the past 30 days.