TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average fell on Tuesday, slipping from a record high scaled earlier in the session, as heavyweight chip-related stocks changed course, but gains in steel makers and other traditional stocks capped the losses.
The Nikkei slipped 0.15% to 39,173.92 in the morning session, snapping a two-session rally.
The index rose as much as 0.5% to a record 39,426.29 earlier in the session.
Chip giants Advantest and Tokyo Electron gave up early gains to fall 2.69% and 0.69%, respectively, becoming the biggest drag for the Nikkei.
Shares in traditional industries rose, lifting the broader Topix 0.34% to 2,682.74.
“Investors have shifted their target in the current session. Domestic investors seemed to have scooped up value stocks as they saw those shares were still reasonable,” Shigetoshi Kamada, general manager at the research department at Tachibana Securities, said.
“And the gains in value stocks could lift the Topix to a record high level. And that could boost the Nikkei to as high as 42,000 level.”
The Topix index of value shares rose 0.59%, outperforming a 0.09% gain of the index for the growth stocks, which comprises companies with potential for high earnings, such as chip-related stocks.
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Steel makers jumped 2.69% to become the top performer among the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 industry sub-indexes.
Kobe Steel and Nippon Steel rose 3.6% and 3.21%, respectively.
The brokerage sector rose 2.02% and the banking sector gained 2.04%.
Trading firms were mixed after Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway raised its stake in Japan’s top five trading firms to around 9%.
Mitsui & Co rose 1.11%, while Mitsubishi Corp inched down 0.12%.
Itochu Corp rose 0.42%.
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