TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average marked a fresh closing high on Thursday, as optimism over the growth of AI-driven cloud businesses in the US sent index heavyweight SoftBank Group’s shares higher.
The Nikkei rose 1.22 percent to close at 44,372.5, after rising as much as 1.3 percent to a record intraday high of 44,396.95.
By contrast, the broader Topix added just 0.22 percent to 3,147.76.
“The Nikkei has come to a level which is no longer cheap. The market has already priced in the growth in Japan and the US for next year,” said Hitoshi Asaoka, chief strategist at Asset Management One.
“The index has been led by the same stocks, which are related to AI, chips and cables. Investors are not confident enough about the economic outlook so that they cannot rotate their targets.”
Oracle soared 36 percent overnight in the US, marking its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1992. The tech company pointed to a demand surge from AI firms for its cloud services, helping the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notch record-high closes on Wednesday.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.