Japan's Nikkei rises on SoftBank rally, but set for weekly fall

TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average rose on Friday after a four-session slide, driven by a 10% rally in index heavyweight SoftBank Group and buoyed by Wall Street’s strong finish overnight.

The Nikkei climbed 0.86% to 64,769.74 by the midday break, but was down 2.46% for the week.

Technology investor SoftBank Group jumped 10.28% to become the biggest source of gains for the Nikkei after its chip unit Arm Holdings rose 3.29% overnight.

Memory chipmaker Kioxia rose 4.94%.

The broader Topix eased 0.18% to 4,094.48 and was down 1.26% for the week.

“Given the overnight strength of Wall Street, the Nikkei’s gains seemed modest,” said Shuutarou Yasuda, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory.

“That is because US stocks rose on curbed rate-hike bets, but the Bank of Japan is set to raise interest rates.” Markets have almost fully priced in a Bank of Japan interest rate increase to 1.25% later this month.

They have also priced in another hike by January, according to data from money market broker Tokyo Tanshi.

US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday he would support keeping rates unchanged this month if upcoming data confirmed inflation pressures were easing.

Japanese government bond yields extended sharp declines on Friday, with the 10-year JGB yield falling 6 basis points (bps) to 2.905%.

Yasuda said SoftBank’s sharp gains were also supported by falling yields as the group uses leveraged loans to invest in firms.

Japanese trading houses fell after the previous session’s gains, as Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel said the company planned to hold its trading house investments for “many decades”.

Berkshire has more than 10% stakes in Japanese trading houses Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo.

Mitsui fell 4.32% and Mitsubishi lost 3.26%, weighing on the Topix the most.

Banks fell, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group falling 0.32% and 0.95%, respectively.