TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average rose on Thursday, tracking overnight gains in Wall Street, even as the yen firmed on the back of bolstered expectations that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will continue to raise interest rates.
The Nikkei closed up 0.6% at 39,066.53, while the broader Topix finished 0.3% higher at 2,752.2.
All three major US stock indexes rose on Wednesday as investors brushed off disappointing Alphabet earnings and weighed the prospect of future rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
A strong performance by US tech shares and gains by AI darling Nvidia trickled through to boost Japanese chip-related stocks. Advantest, which counts Nvidia among its customers, rose 1% while Tokyo Electron advanced 2%.
The Nikkei briefly pared gains as the yen climbed as high as 151.81 against the US dollar after Naoki Tamura, one of the BOJ’s most hawkish policymakers, said the central bank must raise rates to at least 1% by the second half of fiscal year 2025.
“It was quite a hawkish statement, so that spread the view within markets that the BOJ will continue raising rates, which led to the strengthening of the yen,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.
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