TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average was set for its best January in 26 years, despite a decline for the benchmark index on Wednesday as chip-sector shares tracked overnight losses in US peers.
The Nikkei was up 7.21% for the month as of the midday recess, its best start to the year since about a 9% jump in January 1998, just topping the 7.15% rise in 2013 at the start of Abenomics.
For the day though, the Nikkei slipped 0.52% to 35,876.96, with chip-industry heavyweights among the biggest drags after being buffeted by disappointing financial results from Microsoft, Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices.
Japanese semiconductor equipment makers Tokyo Electron and Advantest lost about 1.7% each, as did AI-focused startup investor SoftBank Group.
By contrast, the broader Topix index, which is less tech-heavy, finished morning trading flat, with an index of value shares gaining 0.4%, while a growth share index fell 0.4%.
Japan’s own earnings season is picking up pace this week, producing some outsized winners and losers.
Construction machinery maker Komatsu jumped 7.3% and imaging company Canon climbed 6.3%, while electronic component-maker Alps Alpine tumbled more than 17%.
Japan’s Nikkei bounces back on stronger energy stocks, soft yen
Although Wall Street’s tech share woes were the biggest factor for the day, “there will be more and more divergence among individual stocks now that the earnings season has really gotten started”, said Maki Sawada, a strategist at Nomura Securities. Some 319 companies are announcing earnings on Wednesday, with the reporting season peaking in mid-February.
The Nikkei currently sits some 3% below the 34-year peak reached on Jan. 16 at 36,984.51, driven to that point by a combination of foreign investor flows out of China, a profit-boosting weak yen and excitement over corporate governance reforms - not to mention sheer momentum.
Analysts, though, had been calling for a pullback after technical indicators signaled the market was overheated. Those indicators show a much more balanced market now.
A measure of momentum called the relative strength index, or RSI, had risen above 76 earlier this month, exceeding the 70 line that suggests overbought conditions. It currently sits below 62.
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