TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average eased on Tuesday in choppy trade, weighed down by declines in Advantest and SoftBank Group, although strong outlook-driven gains in some technology stocks helped limit losses. The Nikkei was down 0.1 percent at 52,361.14 by the midday break. The broader Topix rose 0.38 percent to 3,344.48.
Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest lost 3.63 percent and technology investor SoftBank Group fell 1.33 percent, dragging the index the most.
“The Nikkei went up and down today, but sentiment was strong as seen in the gains of the Topix index,” said Shuutarou Yasuda, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory. “The market momentum was supported by the strong performance of US technology stocks such as Amazon,” he said.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed higher on Monday, with artificial intelligence-related deals driving much of the gains. Amazon rose 4 percent after announcing a USD38 billion deal with OpenAI. Japan’s stock market was closed for a public holiday on Monday.
On Tuesday, Tokyo Electron jumped 3.95 percent after the chip-making equipment maker on Friday hiked its operating profit forecast by 2.8 percent for the year ending March 2026.