Japan’s Nikkei rises as tech shares track Wall Street rally; Eisai surges

TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei stock gauge climbed on Tuesday after a holiday-extended weekend, boosted by strong performances among technology shares that mirrored a recent rally on Wall Street.

The Nikkei 225 Index was up 0.7% at 48,946.07, bouncing back from a 2.4% slide on Friday.

The broader Topix edged 0.2% higher.

Major share indexes on Wall Street closed higher on Monday for a second session, as bets solidified that the US Federal Reserve will deliver another interest rate cut in December.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq spearheaded the rally, driven by strong performances from artificial intelligence-related stocks.

“Stocks that had seen notable declines, particularly AI-related ones, followed the rising trend in the US stock market,” Nomura Securities strategist Maki Sawada said.

“However, looking at futures, currency movements, and the rise in interest rates, we anticipate that upside momentum may be constrained.”

There were 139 advancers in the Nikkei against 85 decliners.

The sharpest advancers were TOPPAN Holdings, up 7.1%, followed by Sumitomo Electric Industries, which gained 6.4%, and chip-sector heavyweight Advantest, up by 5.1%.

Defying the broader upbeat sentiment, Mitsui Kinzoku led the decliners with a 6.12% drop, followed by SoftBank Group, down 4.1%, and Tokyo Electric Power, which fell 3.9%.

Eisai, a co-developer of Alzheimer’s treatment Lequembi, jumped 5.1% after Novo Nordisk said clinical trials of its semaglutide drug failed to help slow the progression of the brain-wasting illness.