TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average ended slightly higher on Wednesday, buoyed in the final half-hour of trade by stronger-than-expected orders at Dutch chip equipment maker ASML.
The Nikkei had languished with losses as deep as 1 percent throughout the session as a sharply stronger yen weighed on Japan’s exporter-heavy stock market. However, the announcement of ASML’s bookings - the most-watched metric in the chip industry - instantly saw the index erase those declines.
The Nikkei ended up 0.05 percent at 53,358.71.
The broader Topix, however, did not benefit as much, and finished the day 0.8 percent lower at 3,535.49. Value shares sank 1.1 percent, outpacing the 0.5 percent fall among growth stocks .
Artificial intelligence-related stocks had already been outperforming the broader market, notably cable makers Fujikura and Furukawa Electric, which soared 9.3 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively.
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